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THE MONTESSORI METHOD 
AND THE AMERICAN SCHOOL 



THE MACMTLLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON ■ BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 




MARIA MONTESSORI. 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



AND 



THE AMERICAN SCHOOL 



BY 



FLORENCE ELIZABETH WARD 

II 

PROFESSOR OF KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION 
IOWA STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1913 

All rights reser-zjed 



LBt75 



Copyright, 1913, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 1913. 



NotiuoDtl P«3S 

J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



JAN "2 1914 



^ 



I 



Zbis JSooft 

IS OFFERED AS A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION 

TO 

THE LARGE-HEARTED, BROAD-MINDED 

PHYSICIAN AND TEACHER 

IN MY COPY OF WHOSE EPOCH-MAKING BOOK 
APPEARS THE FOLLOWING 



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PREFACE 

The Montessori Method has been given so much 
publicity by the American press that its peculiarities 
have become quite generally known, and one who 
attempts to describe them further is in danger of repe- 
tition. It is my aim, however, simply to offer to those 
who have a practical interest in its intimate details some 
of the impressions received through an investigation of 
the Method at first hand, as well as some results of 
experiments made among children with whom I work 
daily at the Iowa State Teachers College. 

The talks herein published are the substance of dis- 
cussions conducted with classes, following my return 
from Rome. It is not their purpose to crystallize atten- 
tion upon some one feature of the equipment or upon 
some one element of the method, but rather to promote 
the study of the principles underlying the entire equip- 
ment and the entire method. 

All pedagogical history proves that reforms in edu- 
cation develop slowly. It would be a curious anomaly 
if the Children's House did not conform to this law of 
evolution. Its best friends are those who willingly sub- 
mit it to the comparisons possible because of work done 
in the exceptionally good home, good kindergarten and 
good primary school of to-day, and to the tests that the 
psychological laboratories are urging for all educational 
procedure. 



VUl PREFACE 

As in any earnest study one should turn at once to 
original sources, so a student of this method should take 
as a basic text Dr. Montessori's own book, " The Mon- 
tessori Method." (Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York.) 
The material herein offered does not claim to be a com- 
plete interpretation of the principles and practices of 
Dr. Montessori, but a supplementary discussion of these 
and their application to our American problems. 

If, as the book goes out, it prompts questions which 
make clearer my own understanding, one purpose will 
have been fulfilled. If other students of the Method, 
in home or school, are led to clearer insight, another 
purpose will have been realized. 

In arranging these talks for publication, conferences 
with Miss Alma L. Binzel, Dr. Effie McCollum Jones, 
Professor Chauncey P. Colegrove, and Professor Wilbur 
H. Bender have been most helpful. Acknowledgment 
is also due to Mr. James M. Pierce, President of the 
House of Childhood, 200 Fifth Avenue, New York, for 
many photographs. 

The following publishers have graciously permitted 
the use of copyrighted material : Frederick A. Stokes 
Co., World Book Co., D. Appleton & Co., Henry Holt 
& Co., Ginn & Co., Century Co., Harper & Bros., The 
A. S. Barnes Co., Sigma Publishing Co., David McKay, 
Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. 

FLORENCE ELIZABETH WARD. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 

Interest in the Montessori Method brought many 
letters of inquiry to The Iowa State Teachers College, 
and prompted the provision for a series of discussions 
on this subject at the Summer Session of 191 2. 

Being the one appointed to lead these discussions, 
and knowing little of the Method except what had been 
gleaned from popularly written magazine articles, I de- 
cided to go to Rome, on leave of absence, to gain what 
insight I could at the fountainhead. So, accompanied 
by another kindergartner bent on the same mission, I 
sailed for Europe in the early spring. 

En route we stopped atTarrytown, New York, where 
Miss Anne E. George, Dr. Montessori's first American 
pupil, was conducting a real Montessori school. Miss 
George was enthusiastic over the results of her experi- 
ments with Montessori ideas and materials among the 
favored children of the American rich. She had worked 
for eight months in the schools of Rome, dealing largely 
with children of the street who look after themselves 
from the time they can walk. She told of her delight 
in discovering that these two types of children, so dif- 
ferent in nationality and social opportunity, had funda- 
mentally the same instincts, impulses and desires, and 
that the Tarrytown children responded as delightfully 
to the Montessori environment as did the Italian chil- 
dren of the slums. (Miss George has since established 
a permanent Montessori school in Washington. She is 
probably, at this time, the best-informed and most skill- 
ful American exponent of the method.) 



X INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 

Arriving in Boston, we went to Cambridge for a con- 
ference with Professor Henry W. Holmes, who wrote 
the introduction to the American edition of Dr. Mon- 
tessori's book. Professor Holmes is one of the few 
men identified with great universities who has made a 
thorough study of Froebelian philosophy, and his com- 
parisons of the Casa dei Bambini and the Kindergarten 
were most illuminating. 

We spent one profitable afternoon visiting the Mas- 
sachusetts School for the Feeble-minded at Waverly, 
where the materials developed by Dr. Edward Seguin, 
the famous French specialist for defectives, are in use. 
As is well known, Dr. Montessori has adapted these 
materials for the training of normal children. It may 
be of interest to note here that Dr. Seguin came to 
America in 1850, that for many years, until his death, 
he was active in promoting scientific methods for the 
treatment of defective children, and that Mrs. Seguin 
still carries forward the work of her illustrious husband 
in a private school at East Orange, New Jersey. The 
Superintendent of the Waverly institution, Dr. Walter 
S. Fernald, a man of clear vision and broad sympathy in 
his work, showed us the Seguin materials and explained 
their practical, daily use in his remarkable school. 

Through the courtesy of the Frederick A. Stokes 
Publishing Company, we received on shipboard one of 
the first copies of the English translation of Dr. Mon- 
tessori's book as it came from the press. This book 
we read with eagerness, and by the time we had reached 
Naples its pages were well worn from lending, as many 
passengers desired a peep into the book whose publi- 
cation had been looked for with keen anticipation by 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS XI 

American students of child life. It proved delightful 
reading, showing as it did the sympathetic, womanly- 
spirit of the author as well as her fine intellectual in- 
sight. It gave us a general exposition of the method, 
the needs which called it into existence, the principles 
upon which it was based, and the results realized in 
actual practice. 

On arriving in Rome, we found ourselves surrounded 
by Americans whose purpose was the same as our own, 
but we soon realized that one's presence there did not 
insure illumination on the subject of the Montessori 
method. No training courses were being offered for 
teachers ; the Dottoressa was difficult of access ; her 
schools were not open to the public; and those who 
won entrance into her laboratory and her confidence 
counted themselves fortunate. She was no respecter 
of persons in the matter of those she received. The 
college professor, accustomed to recognition ; the school 
superintendent, whose word is law; the zealous, not-to- 
be-thwarted kindergartner and primary teacher ; to say 
nothing of the purposeful settlement worker ; the per- 
sistent reporter ; and the affable photographer, — all 
came to a sudden halt at the threshold of this quiet, 
unassuming originator. With many desiring to see 
her, she went serenely on, testing her theories with 
groups of children, apparently caring little for worldly 
recognition or financial gain. 

Sometimes days passed before one could arrange 
for an interview. In this waiting period, expectancy 
changed to disappointment, and irritation to chagrin. 
But as it is human nature to strive for the thing most 
difficult to obtain, perseverance knew no bounds and 



Xll INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 

the belated message which opened doors to the scene 
of action was most welcome. Once admitted, one was 
treated with the greatest cordiality. " I am willing to 
see those who are here in search of truth," said Dr. 
Montessori, "but many come out of curiosity or with 
a passion for the new and the unusual. I cannot meet 
these purloiners of time. If I saw all callers and 
answered all letters, I should have no time for experi- 
ment and study, and my system is not yet completed." 

I remember with pleasure my first conference with 
Dr. Montessori. Accustomed to associate eccentricity 
with genius, I confess to a happy disappointment. Her 
attractive home is but a suitable setting for this gra- 
cious, queenly woman, whose charm of manner and 
womanly poise make her a joy to look upon. Becom- 
ingly gowned and free from affectation, she illustrates 
the fact that there is no necessary antagonism between 
brilliancy of mind and attractiveness of person. 

To say that she answers all questions, or that her 
system solves all pedagogical problems, as some enthu- 
siasts do, is manifestly absurd. The Dottoressa herself 
makes no such sweeping claim. That she points the 
way toward a marked advance along some lines of re- 
form in early education, there is little chance for doubt. 
Like many others, I went to Rome with some question 
as to whether the peculiar personal development of 
educational theories might not have been unduly ex- 
ploited by seekers of magazine sensation. I came away 
with the conviction that certain influences of the Casa 
dei Bambini will be distinct and permanent contributions 
to the enrichment of child life. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Preface vii-viii 

Introductory Remarks ix-xii 

Chapter I. The Evolution of the Method » ' , 1-12 

Maria Montessori as a student. Interest in defectives 
leads to a study of Itard and Seguin. The Good Build- 
ing Association establishes the Casa dei Bambini. The 
work spreads from the slum to the aristocratic district. 
The Montessori Association in America. 

Chapter II. Impressions of a Montessori School . 13-27 
Children work with independence and purpose. The 
day's activities. Housekeeping, toilet making, sense ex- 
ercises, games, luncheon. Ideals of Dr. Maria Montessori 
and Col. Francis \V. Parker compared. 

Chapter III. Freedom — The Underlying Principle 28-51 
Natural laws of growth applied to child training. The 
self-effacing teacher. The scientific spirit. Discipline 
which leads to self-control. Obedience which comes 
from within. The significance of prizes and punishment. 
Judging children by grown-up standards. 

Chapter IV. The Child's World of Objects , . 52-91 
Relationship between sensori-motor activity and 
growth. The child's early interest in objects. The 
mechanism which enables the child to acquire a mastery 
of his environment. Significance of the basic sense of 
touch. The other senses. Hellen Keller. Montessori's 
plan for educating the senses. Didactic materials de- 
scribed and grouped. Some typical lessons. Conditions 
necessary for successful use of materials. 

Chapter V. Language, Oral and Written. Writing, 

Phonics, Composition, Reading 92-115 

The spectacular feature of writing. The process de- 
scribed. An experiment. Outline of method in reading. 



XIV 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Basic ideas underlying the plan. Relation of composi- 
tion to reading. Reasons for this method. Comparison 
with American methods. 

Chapter VI. Number Development .... 116-141 
From vague notions of number to a mastery of number 
facts. The long stair, the broad stair and the tower 
teach indefinite comparison. Definite number work with 
the long stair and other objects. The fundamental pro- 
cesses. The metric system. History of the development 
of method in elementary arithmetic. 

Chapter VII. Mediums of Self-expressive and Pre- 
paratory Values — Clay, Blocks, Crayon, Water 

Color 142-161 

Hand work reveals the child to himself ; to others. 
Stages of the development of constructive motive. The 
educational value of clay. The relation of suitable stimuli 
and personal freedom to childlike expression. Points in 
connection with children's drawings. 

Chapter VIII. The Oldest Agency of Early Educa- 
tion—The Home. 162-184 

The significance of babyhood. The evolution of the 
home. Types of homes. Montessori's ideals for parents. 
The didactic materials in the home. 

Chapter. IX. Other Agencies of Early Education — 

The Kindergarten and the Primary School .. 185-208 

Educational facilities have developed from the top 
downward. The kindergarten and the primary school 
judged by their best standards. Kindergarten report of 
the New York City school inquiry. Comparisons of 
Casa dei Bambini and kindergarten as to subject matter. 

Chapter X. Other Agencies of Early Education 

{Contimied) 209-231 

The child and the curriculum brought together by the 
teacher. The child an active agent in his own educa- 
tion. Methods of the Casa dei Bambini and the kin- 
dergarten. Group work and individual work. Some 
questions. Uplift for American child life through Mon- 
tessori's ideals. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Maria Montessori 



Casa dei Bambini ...... 

The fountain at the Cloister School 

The older children help the younger ones 

The frames ...... 

Each frame embodies some helpful process 

Preparing the tables for luncheon . 

Saying grace before serving luncheon . 

The race down the broad walk after a busy morning 

After luncheon the dishes must be washed and dried 

The silver is sorted into boxes .... 

Rugs must be sw.ept and folded before being put away 
The buttoning frames ...... 

Little aristocrats learning to care for themselves . 
The " seeing " fingers ...... 

The use of textures refines tactile discrimination . 
Preparing for the game of " Silence " . 
Materials leading to writing and reading 
The much-famed writing ..... 

The tower and the long stair ..... 

A child is arranging words from the alphabet boxes 

Building with the tower and the broad stair . 

A Roman patriot aged four ..... 

After a play time with clay 

The gardeners ....... 

Coloring from outline 

Filling watering pots from the fountain 
A corner of the music room in the Pincian Hill School 
The hand-washing activity ..... 
Italian children enjoying a merry traditional game 
A swing is an old favorite piece of play apparatus 
Watching the mother bird feed her young 



Frontispiece 

PAGE 



10 

16 

19 

20 

22 

25 

30 

34 

38 

42 

46 

48 

54 

60 

81 

104 

108 

119 

123 

136 

144 

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152 

158 

166 

169 

173 

175 

179 

181 



XVI 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Free play in the kindergarten .... 

Story telling in the kindergarten .... 
Kindergarten children watching the goldfish 
The sand table — a never-failing source of delight 
Little builders in the kindergarten 
A singing group in the kindergarten 
Exploration and discovery ..... 
Kindergarten children using Montessori materials 
Nimble fingers lacing a Montessori frame 



PAGE 

186 
192 
194 

202 
206 
211 
214 
2lS 
230 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 
AND THE AMERICAN SCHOOL 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD AND 
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL 

CHAPTER I 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 

An Italian physician and teacher has worked out a 
plan for directing the activities of httle children — 
a plan so unusual that her modest schools in Rome have 
attracted the attention of educators on two continents, 
provoked universal newspaper and magazine comment 
and caused the migration to Rome of many a teacher, 
psychologist and social worker, some representing colleges, 
universities and even governments in official capacity. 

This new method, denounced by some as a fad, ex- 
tolled by others as a solution of all our pedagogical 
problems, has been discovered before its completion, and 
its quiet, unassuming originator, Doctor Maria Mon- 
tessori, reluctantly finds herself the center of a storm of 
question, adulation and criticism. 

The general interest in this method, which began to 
manifest itself in America a few years ago, has been 
considerably heightened by the appearance of an Enghsh 
translation of Doctor Montessori's Educational Trea- 
tise, and by the organization of an American corporation, 
known as the House of Childhood, for the manufacture 
and distribution of her didactic materials. 



2 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Thus in possession of both the book and the equip- 
ment, American students of child life are considering 
what features are practical for our uses. They are 
comparing the old with the new, and challenging the 
new to prove its right to a place in our educational 
practice. 

The present widespread discussion of Montessori 
ideas, significant of the restlessness and discontent with 
existing school conditions, is in the Hne of progress, for 
though we may justly claim to maintain in America the 
best system of pubUc kindergarten and primary schools 
in the world, we are not satisfied with present attain- 
ments, nor do we assume that the final word has been 
spoken with reference to child training. Indeed, the 
attention accorded this method is but another illustra- 
tion of America's well-known hospitality toward helpful 
ideas, from whatever source. 

Some of the most valuable elements of our educational 
work are importations. The contribution of the kinder- 
garten made by Germany has enriched the American 
child's life beyond measure, and it is a suggestive fact 
that the successful American kindergarten, adapted and 
adopted under present century enhghtenment to meet 
the needs of American temperament, social environment 
and national ideals, is a far better exemplification of 
Froebelian philosophy than the kindergartens of the 
Fatherland. May it not legitimately follow that what- 
ever in the Montessori Method is fundamental, and hence 
applicable to universal child nature, may because of our 
liberal and democratic spirit be worked out even more 
ideally here than in Italy ? 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 3 

The story of the beginning and growth of the Montes- 
sori Method is an interesting one. It tells how a woman's 
mind, which had been highly trained for one purpose, 
was seized by quite another idea and drawn into quite 
another field bf activity, and how the way was made 
plain for this unexpected pioneering by a combination 
of circumstances so fortuitous as to seem almost to belong 
to a romantic age rather than to our scientific century. 

A notion prevails that the teacher is born, not made ; 
that from early childhood the future pedagogue gathers 
her playmates about her and conducts an imaginary 
school. Here Maria Montessori breaks with tradition. 
It was the dream of her life to become a physician, and 
with energy and high spirit she turned her unusually 
gifted personality in that direction. It was no light 
thing in Italy for a young woman to secure the training 
she sought. Social prejudice, intellectual bigotry and 
professional jealousies barred her way, but with char- 
acteristic persistence she reached her goal and was the 
first woman to receive the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
at the University of Rome, where she later conducted 
lecture courses in pedagogical anthropology.^ 

Her success as a student was brilliant enough to have 
promised for her a conspicuous future as a physician. 
Yet it was this very medical training which served as 
a means to lead her into the educational field. Her first 
step in that direction was taken when as an Assistant 
Doctor at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of 
Rome she frequently visited the slums and insane 
hospitals for suitable subjects. 

1 Pedagogical Anthropology. Montessori. Frederick A. Stokes Co. 



4 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

A keen interest in children's diseases, especially those 
of defectives, took possession of this noble woman. She 
became intensely interested in the social problems of the 
poor. One who has not visited the poverty-stricken 
sections of Rome can have little conception of the con- 
ditions there, where want and depravity produce many 
abnormal children, some functionally defective, others 
unawakened and backward. Doctor Montessori at- 
tacked this situation with all her instinctive maternal 
sympathy, and soon came out with the assertion that 
idiocy was not alone the problem of the physician, but 
of the teacher as well ; that pedagogy more than medicine 
could improve conditions.^ 

The outgrowth of her agitation of this theory was the 
establishment of the State Orthophrenic School, of which 
she became head. Here she not only trained teachers 
in special methods of deahng with the feeble minded, 
but taught the children herself, often working from eight 
in the morning until seven at night, almost without in- 
termission. " These two years of practice," says Dr. 
Montessori, "are my first and indeed my true degree 
in pedagogy." 

"Every new system bears the stamp of a personality ; the ele- 
ment is strongly marked in this particular case by reason of the 
high enthusiasm of the author, and energy instinct as it were with 
the maternal passion, the passion for saving and upbuilding, which 
makes women the great conservative force in society. In the case 
of Dr. Montessori, this energy has been directed by prolonged 
training in the sciences that relate to human life, and vitalized 
by practical experience in their application to needy and defective 
children. In brief, her method is the outcome of genius, training, 

^ "An Educational Wonder Worker." McClure's, May 191 1. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 5 

and experience. This combination of qualities is not only certain 
from the testimony of her associates, but it is borne out by the 
first chapter of her book, which, although bearing the caption 
' Critical Considerations,' is more truly a revelation of her own 
sympathetic nature and a record of reflections excited by the un- 
natural restraints placed upon children whom she observed." ^ 

Doctor Montessori wrote and lectured extensively, 
urging scientific and corrective measures for this neg- 
lected class of children. For light upon the subject, 
she turned to Itard, the famous French physician, 
who, she asserts, made the first practical attempts at 
experimental psychology. She also studied his disciple, 
Seguin, many of whose materials she has modified and 
adapted in her system.^ She investigated these theories 
with vigor, translating into Italian the books of these 
famous French specialists, and visiting Paris and London 
for purposes of research. 

"Having through actual experience justified my faith in 
Seguin's method, I withdrew from active work among deficients, 
and began a more thorough study of the works of Itard and Seguin. 
I felt the need of meditation. I did a thing which I had not done 
before, and which perhaps few students have been willing to do, — 
I translated into Italian and copied out with my own hand the 
writings of these men, from beginning to end, making for myself 
books as the old Benedictines used to do before the diffusion of 
printing." ' 

Through years of untiring devotion to this work, to 
which she brought not only the experience of a practicing 
physician, but also the patient concentration of a student, 

1 The Montessori System of Education. United States Bureau of 
Education. Bulletin 191 2, No. 17. 

^ Idiocy and its Treatment by the Physiological Method. Seguin. 
' The Montessori Method, p. 41. 



6 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

she evolved a plan of teaching, by which abnormal 
children were brought up to grade, passing the usual 
tests of normal children of the same age. 

To prove the efEciency of her method, she asked to 
have these children admitted to the municipal schools of 
Rome. The permission was reluctantly granted. When 
the teachers saw the advancement of these defectives, 
they said, "This is a miracle." The Dottoressa replied 
that if they, by the use of scientific methods, would give 
the children under their charge as fair a chance, her 
success would not seem a miracle ; for normal children, 
having no handicap, would make proportionally an even 
greater advance. 

Doctor Montessori later withdrew from the active 
work of teaching defectives, and reentered the Uni- 
versity of Rome, where her grasp of philosophical and 
scientific subjects made her a dreaded opponent in 
argument or debate among her classmen. 

The more she considered her methods, the more she 
was convinced that they were broad enough to apply 
to all classes of children, normal as well as abnormal. 

"From the very beginning of my work with deficient children 
(1898 to 1900) I felt that the methods which I used had in them 
nothing peculiarly limited to the instruction of idiots. I believed 
that they contained educational principles more rational than those 
in use, so much more so, indeed, that through their means an in- 
ferior mentality would be able to grow and develop. This feehng, 
so deep as to be in the nature of an intuition, became my controlling 
idea after I had left the school for deficients, and, little by little, 
I became convinced that similar methods applied to normal chil- 
dren would develop or set free their personality in a marvellous and 
surprising way." ^ 

^The Montessori Method, pp. 32-33. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 7 

An almost capricious favor of circumstance brought 
an agency to hand which provided opportunity and 
material for Doctor Montessori to test hef belief . An 
organization called the Roman Association for Good 
Building owned many tenements in the Quarter of San 
Lorenzo, and in other poor and neglected districts. It 
was decided to rebuild some of these, converting them 
into modern apartments with Ught, air and sanitation, 
and providing modern schoolrooms within the buildings 
— a plan prompted by the combined motives of com- 
mercial enterprise and social uplift. 

Doctor Montessori was invited to take charge of these 
schools, and was offered a free hand as to method, 
equipment ahd organization. Immediately she saw the 
social significance and educational possibilities of such a 
scheme and accepted the commission, estabhshing the 
first 9<:iiool in Via dei Masi, January, 1907, and christen- 
ing it with the happy name of Casa dei Bambini, or 
Children's House. Others were started soon after, and 
it is in these much talked of schools that Doctor Montes- 
sori has demonstrated, to her own satisfaction and that 
of thousands of visitors, the power of a few well-known 
but often neglected principles governing child life. 

Such a rare opportunity for the testing of theories 
comes to but few educators. Given full charge of small 
groups of children with the privilege of providing for 
them ideal physical and social environment, with ad- 
mission requirements which eliminated objectionable 
conditions and preserved for each child that personal 
liberty upon which the method was based, she watched 
without hindrance the demonstration of her theories. 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD 9 

Children were admitted between the ages of three and 
seven. While there was no tuition charged, parents 
availing themselves of the privileges of the school pledged 
the following : 

"(a) To send their children to the 'Children's House' at the 
appointed time, clean in body and clothing, and provided with a 
suitable apron. 

" (b) To show the greatest respect and deference toward the 
Directress and toward all persons connected with the 'Children's 
House,' and to cooperate with the Directress herself in the edu- 
cation of the children. Once a week, at least, the mothers may 
talk with the Directress, giving her information concerning the 
home life of the child, and receiving helpful advice from her. 

" There shall be expelled from the 'Children's House' : 
" (o) Those children who present themselves unwashed, or in 
soiled clothing. 

" (b) Those who show themselves to be incorrigible. 

" (c) Those whose parents fail in respect to the persons con- 
nected with the 'Children's House' or who destroy through bad 
conduct the educational work of the institution." ^ 

Doctor Montessori has now given up her official rela- 
tions with the Good Building Association. The only 
school under her personal charge is the Cloister School 
conducted by the Franciscan Missionary Nuns in 
Via Giusti. This is her laboratory and the best school 
of its kind in Rome, giving the truest interpretation of 
the Dottoressa's ideals. 

The statement is made by critics that only a teacher 
of pecuhar skill, perhaps a Montessori herself, with a 
selected group of children could secure desirable results 
from this method. One finds on investigation, however, 
that there are a number of fairly good schools in widely 
^ The Montessori Method, pp. 70-71. 



lO 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




THE EVOLUTION OF THE METHOD II 

differing quarters of Rome. Indeed, the schools estab- 
lished in the slums several years ago reach now to the 
other extreme of the social stratum. In the Casa dei 
Bambini on Pincian Hill one sees the carefully reared 
scions of the exclusive aristocracy using the didactic 
materials and receiving the social training provided for 
the children of the Ghetto at the Municipal School of 
St. Angelo in Pescheria, a most poverty-stricken quarter. 
Between these extremes there are such schools as the one 
in Via Giusti. That Doctor Montessori's method has 
merit is demonstrated by the fact that with these various 
types of children, despite their differences in heredity, 
home environment and early training, it gains a measure 
of success ; and this when the teachers, from the scholarly, 
scientific Montessori to the cloistered white-robed 
Sisters, show almost an equal range of characteristics and 
personaUty. 

Doctor Montessori's work is not, however, meant to 
end with beginners. She has in her own home, in the 
neighborhood of the Piazza del Popolo, a class for 
children beyond the age of six, to which few visitors are 
admitted and in which she is testing plans for carrying 
forward her principles into the work of the grades, hop- 
ing to offer an advance and simplification along that fine. 

She proves on acquaintance to be an untiring seeker 
after truth. Personal recognition, and especially sensa- 
tional notoriety, are apparently farthest from her desire. 
She makes no sweeping claims of originahty, but gives 
full credit to other workers in the same field. 

"Here lies the significance of my pedagogical experiment in 
the 'Children's Houses.' It represents the results of a series of 



12 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

trials made by me, in tlie education of young children, with 
methods already used with deficients. My work has not been in 
any way an application, pure and simple, of the methods of Seguin 
to young children, as any one who will consult the works of the 
author will readily see. But it is none the less true that, under- 
lying these two years of trial, there is a basis of experiment which 
goes back to the days of the French Revolution and which repre- 
sents the earnest work of the lives of Itard and Seguin." ^ 

Efforts have been made to establish schools based on 
the Montessori idea in Switzerland, France, England 
and other countries. Perhaps the latest and most sig- 
nificant development is the organization of a Montessori 
Educational Association in Washington (the outgrowth 
of Miss George's School) for the propagation of Mon- 
tessori ideals in America. Officers and patrons of this 
organization are men and women whose names add 
stability to the movement. Doctor Montessori's train- 
ing class for teachers, recently conducted in Rome, was 
attended by a number of Americans well known in 
educational work. 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 45. 



CHAPTER II 

IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 

The strait-laced educator with traditional notions 
as to what a school should be in outward appearance and 
inner aim has in store a distinct sense of shock when he, 
with the necessary credentials in hand, first sets foot 
inside the Casa dei Bambini. 

He may arrive between ten and eleven in the morning 
and find himself within a large and airy room, looking 
out upon an open court with generous spaces for gardens 
and games. He will be apt to see some thirty children 
between the ages of three and six, very much aHve, and 
doing to all appearances exactly as they please, quite 
independent of each other and quite unconscious of the 
appearance of a visitor, so absorbed are they in their 
various interests. Perhaps a dozen different activities 
are going on at once, the children moving about without 
restraint, adjusting the small, hght-weight tables and 
chairs to suit the convenience of the moment. 

There seems at first to be no teacher present with 
these self-contained, happy children, but one is there 
within easy reach, though without rostrum or desk 
from which to reign. She goes quietly about, giving a 
suggestion here or a bit of instruction there. Sometimes 
she is the center of a group of expectant, upturned faces, 
but oftener she deals with the individual child. 

13 



14 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Our visitor, observing all this at a glance, may feel 
quite justified in declaring that, while this is an interest- 
ing place as one of the novel sights of modern Rome, it 
is not a school at all, as it violates every principle of 
formal school organization. There are no rows of chil- 
dren waiting to respond to the beck and call of the teacher. 
There are no classes engaged in prescribed occupations. 
The only groups are the natural ones formed by the 
children themselves because of their mutual tastes and 
present interest. There is not that unnatural quiet of 
suppressed, inactive children so often felt in a school- 
room, although the busy hum of gentle voices has in it 
no confusion or disorder. And as the day advances, 
our visitor may feel that this interesting place is even 
less like a school and more difficult to understand. 
The only way that he will be able to put himself into 
a sympathetic and intelligent attitude toward this 
strange institution will be to catch the newer idea of 
what constitutes a school. If its purpose is to furnish 
an environment where children may grow toward the 
highest self-reaHzation while they are being prepared 
for social life, and if the only organization desired is 
that which shall contribute to such an end, then, putting 
prejudice and tradition aside, he may be able to see how 
this Children's House is in a measure fulfilling such a 
mission ; and following the work through an entire day, 
he will see, too, that back of this apparent lack of or- 
ganization there is order and purpose. 

It will be illuminating for our observer to keep in 
mind some of the underlying ideas of the method, such 
as the following : 



IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 1 5 

" (i) If a new and scientific pedagogy is to arise from the study 
of the individual, such study must occupy itself with the observa- 
tion of free children." 

" (2) He who experiments must, while doing so, divest himself 
of every preconception." 

" (3) Life acts of itself, and to divine its secrets or direct its ac- 
tivity it is necessary to observe without intervening." — MoN- 

TESSORI. 

The Montessori school covers a long day, but one so 
broken by household activities, luncheon, nap and rest 
period, free play and gardening, that it calls for but two 
and one half hours of actual school work. 

The children arrive early and are soon industriously 
carrying on the first activity of the day, the toilet 
making, a feature particularly desirable among the 
class of children found in the poorer districts. The low 
washstands with their complete equipment of miniature 
bowl, pitcher, and other conveniences, are so adapted 
to the children's needs that they wash their faces and 
hands, brush their hair, care for their teeth and nails, 
and come out of the process bright and shining with an 
air of pride and the self-respect of the well-groomed. 

The aprons, distinguished by embroidered names, 
are kept at the school, the older children helping the 
younger ones to put on this finishing touch, thus often 
covering a multitude of shortcomings and placing all on 
an equal footing as far as appearances are concerned. 

The next bit of procedure is the inspection of the school- 
room by the children. Armed with pans, and Uttle 
brooms, they vigorously attack every corner where dirt 
might be found hiding, and with absorbed interest and 
housewifely precision sweep and fold their rugs, arrange 



16 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




The Older Children help the Younger Ones. 



IMJ»RESSlONS OF A MUNTESSORl SCHOOL 17 

the furnishings of the room, give water to the thirsty 
plants, and put snugly into cupboards every stray bit 
of didactic material. The joy with which they enter 
into real work with real results is indeed a pleasing 
sight. 

When this is done, they seat themselves in their com- 
fortable chairs before the small work tables. The 
directress calls attention to correct ways . of sitting, 
rising and standing, gives exercises in poUteness, and 
remarks upon the satisfaction one feels in having every- 
thing clean and in order. Then follows a happy morn- 
ing talk with the exchange of ideas and interests 
between directress and pupils. After this comes the 
morning prayer and hymn. 

During this time the little tables are arranged in 
orderly fashion, giving the appearance of the ordinary 
schoolroom. But now the time has come for the object 
lessons and sense games, and the children begin to move 
about with the greatest freedom and initiative, going 
to the low, convenient cupboards for the didactic ma- 
terials in the use of which these schools are so unusual. 

The chairs and tables are moved to any part of the room 
or courtyard which best suits the comfort of the children. 
Green rugs are thrown down by those who wish to work 
upon the floor. There is no apparent restraint, yet 
there is no disorder. This work is varied, yet there is 
no confusion. Children go freely about the room and 
courtyard, taking materials from the cupboards and 
putting them away again when they wish to change their 
occupation. One watches with absorbed attention, 
not so much because of the strange toys these children 



1 8 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

are using as because of their purposeful, happy enjoy- 
ment of them and their apparent indifference to the 
presence of the directress. 

The chests of drawers, about the size of a doll's 
dresser, containing cloths of different textures, are 
brought forth, and one child has a self-imposed bandage 
placed over his bright eyes, so that the sensitive finger 
tips may better decide whether the squares of cloth are 
of silk, Hnen, velvet or wool. The delicate fingers seem 
to like the contact, for later, with eyes tightly closed, 
the child may be seen smoothing a visitor's shirt waist 
and glove. 

A httle girl unconsciously cultivates the retentive 
muscular memory by the use of a polished wooden block 
which she has taken from the cupboard. This block 
contains cylindrical insets of different sizes. These are 
removed from the solid block, placed in a promiscuous 
pile and fitted into the holes to which they belong. As 
the large cyhnder will not go into the small hole, or the 
tall one into the shallow hole, the child, through the 
sense of touch, finally places each in its snug socket and 
settles back with an air of satisfaction. 

Instead of leaving this finished task, as one might 
expect, she looks about contentedly for a few moments 
and then begins all over again, taking the cyhnders out 
and mixing them up on the table ; the childish passion 
for arranging things in rows, and the pleasure of being 
able to see and correct one's mistakes, furnishing the 
incentive. 

One group is working most industriously. Each has 
a light embroidery frame to which has been attached, 



IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 



19 



on either side, strips of cloth or leather with suitable 
fastenings. A chubby boy is vigorously buttoning the 
leather pieces together. A miss of three is pushing 




Shoe Buttons. 



Lacings. 




Hooks and Eyes. 



Large Buttons. 



pearl buttons through firm buttonholes to join two 
pieces of linen. The third of the trio, a girl some months 
older, is tying her pieces of cloth together with strips of 
ribbon, spreading out the bows and ends in a way that 
would do credit to a grown-up. Other small fingers are 
gaining in cunning by feeling the edges of geometric 
insets, circular, square and oblong. These, like the 
cylinders, fit perfectly into the spaces provided for them, 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



making an exercise by which a child may detect and 
overcome his own errors. 

Children who have dropped down upon the rugs with 
their blocks are lost to all other things. It is evident 




p^l^»^^ 







The Frames. 

Each frame embodies some process which helps the child to become 
independent in dressing himself. 

at a glance that these blocks are not for creative build- 
ing exercises, but to develop the sense perception of 
size, proportion and number. One child builds up the 
long stair, and its slender rods of red and blue, which 
emphasize the distinction between long and short, form 
steps of these bright colors. Another contentedly 
shoves together the thick and thin blocks of the broad 
stair which, when the ten parts are correctly placed, 
form complete and even steps of graduated prisms. 



IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 21 

The pink tower is built to its highest point. Each of 
these three exercises is self-corrective, which accounts 
for the children's long-continued enjoyment of them. 

A group is formed about a table for an absorbing game 
in matching colors with many bobbins of bright silk 
threads. The child's love of scribbhng is gratified by 
exercises consisting of free strokes of large pencils, 
filling in circles, squares and triangles in geometric 
design — an unconscious preparation for writing. Some 
are arranging words and phrases with the pink con- 
sonants and blue vowels of the alphabet, the words 
standing out brightly on the green rug. 

In all these activities the teacher follows rather than 
leads the children, and except for an occasional bit of 
assistance or advice, she is not much in evidence. 
Sometimes she gathers a small company of children 
about her for a group exercise, but there seems to be no 
occasion for her to raise her voice above a quiet, com- 
posed tone or to command the attention of the children. 

To observe so many children with such a degree of 
self-mastery and composure is provocative of thought. 
Just what is the secret of this atmosphere of calm ? Is 
it the didactic material, the teacher's personality or the 
Itahan temperament ? Are the children old beyond their 
years and are they losing something of their babyhood ? 
They do not seem to be ; they are all quite childishly 
joyous and happy ; and while the teacher is alert, in- 
telligent and sympathetic, it cannot be her influence 
alone. Are these self-contained, energetic little beings 
a bit unsocial ? Except for an occasional group of dark 
heads seen together, each child works by himself. 



22 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



I 







IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 23 

It is not long, however, before one is convinced that 
the child's love of comradeship and play are not lost 
sight of, as evidenced by the buoyancy and freedom of 
both children and directress during the game period in 
the open courtyard. A chord is struck on the piano. 
Instantly these much-absorbed, silent and apparently 
self-centered little mortals briskly put away their 
materials in anticipation of the jolly cooperative march, 
the games and the luncheon which are to follow. Not 
every one comes to the circle on the instant. A few who 
have not quite finished or have just reached an interest- 
ing climax continue in their work, only glancing up 
occasionally to smile or chuckle at the froUcsof the others. 
These children later join the playing group without 
comment from the directress. 

At luncheon time, all come in wide awake and re- 
freshed. The simple meal is served by little waiters and 
waitresses appointed for the day, who, without accident, 
carry tureens of soup and pitchers of water with skill 
and ease. Later, when the luncheon is over, an in- 
dustrious band gathers up and washes the dishes, sorts 
and puts away the silver, sweeps and dusts the room, 
all after the manner of very good housekeepers. 

Great delight is shown by the children in this part of 
the day's program. They eagerly watch the bulletin 
which announces from day to day the names of those 
appointed to act as helpers. It is because of Doctor 
Montessori's belief that the child hungers for reality 
and for real purposeful activity that she puts into his 
hands these tools for the household processes. Hence, 
the purpose of these exercises is not primarily to pre- 



24 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

pare children for service to their elders, but for an aid 
to physical and moral development. 

The children are given only those things to do which 
they have gained the power to accomplish through such 
definite exercises as moving furnishings silently, mount- 
ing and descending stairs without touching a railing, 
sitting, standing, bowing, and greeting each other 
correctly. 

The afternoon is occupied with games, hand work, 
gymnastics and gardening, and though the day is long, 
the luncheon and rest period give the relaxation and 
nourishment needed, and there is apparently no undue 
weariness or nervous strain. 

A day's program follows : 

"Opening at nine o'clock — Closing at four o'clock. 

Q-io. Entrance. Greeting. Inspection as to personal 

cleanliness. Exercises of practical life; helping 
one another to take off and put on the aprons. 
Going over the room to see that everything is 
dusted and in order. Language : Conversation 
period : Children give an account of the events 
of the day before. Religious exercises. 

to-ii. Intellectual exercises. Objective lessons interrupted 

by short rest periods. Nomenclature. Sense 
exercises. 

11-11:30. Simple gymnastics: Ordinary movements done 
gracefully, normal position of the body, walking, 
marching in Une, salutations, movements for 
attention, placing of objects gracefully. 

11:30-12. Luncheon: Short prayer. 

1 2-1 . Free games. 



IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 25 




26 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

1-2. Directed games, if possible, in the open air. During 

this period the older children in turn go through 
with the exercises of practical life, cleaning the 
room, dusting, putting the material in order. 
General inspection for cleanliness : Conversation. 

2-3. Manual work. Clay modeling, design, etc. 

3-4. Collective gymnastics and songs, if possible in the 

open air. Exercises to develop forethought : Visit- 
ing and caring for the plants and animals." ^ 

One who is familiar with the ideals of Colonel Francis 
W. Parker, our American pioneer in the movement for 
school socialization, as illustrated some years ago at the 
Cook County Normal, Chicago, is reminded of these 
ideals in observing Montessori's procedure. Colonel 
Parker says : 

"A school is a community; community life is indispensable to 
mental and moral growth. If the act of an individual in any 
way hinders the best work of the community, he is in the wrong. 
The highest duty of the individual is to contribute all in his power 
to the best good of all. This principle is the sure guide to all 
rules and regulations of a school. How much noise shall there be 
in the school ? Just enough to assist each and all to do their best 
work. How quiet shall it be ? Just quiet enough to assist each 
and all to do their best work. How much whispering ? What 
shall be the rules for coming in and going out ? For punctuality ? 
Every rule of a school, in order that it may be of educative influence 
and be felt to be right by each pupil, consists in carrying out this 
motto — 'Everything to help and nothing to hinder.' The first 
essential to true manhood is to feel the dignity of life, and that 
dignity comes from a sense of responsibility for the conduct of 
others. 

There is but one test, one genuine test, of a school, which may be 

^The Montessori Method, pp. 1 19-120. 



IMPRESSIONS OF A MONTESSORI SCHOOL 27 

explained by two questions : First, is every individual in this school 
doing educative work in the most economical way? Second, is 
that work the best for the whole, and at the same time the best 
for each individual ? If the answer to these questions is in the 
affirmative in regard to any school, then it can be said to be in 
order. The perfect ideal of order is that each and every minute 
shall be fiUed with that work which best assists each and all in 
growth and development." ^ 

1 From Parker's Talks on Pedagogics, copyright 1894, The A. S. Barnes 
Company, publishers. 



CHAPTER III 

FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 

If Doctor Montessori had adapted no didactic material, 
if she had developed no unusual notions as to sense 
training or introduced no gymnastic apparatus for 
muscular coordination, she would still be entitled to a 
place among educational leaders. Her title to this 
eminence would come from the fact that she has so 
emphatically urged the necessity for the freedom of the 
child, and that she has so successfully demonstrated in 
her schools the possibihties of growth through an 
application of this principle, that educators are asso- 
ciating the words "freedom" and "the child" in their 
discussion of the Montessori Method in a way to center 
interest upon, and bring enhghtenment into, the discus- 
sion of the most fundamental problem of American 
education. 

This problem is, — how to develop thinking, execu- 
tive, socialized individuals who will bring to their 
citizenship all of their powers and talents awakened, 
stimulated and trained to the highest realization. Such 
a development of poise and power must come in large 
measure through the school life. 

Fundamental to all Doctor Montessori's plans for 
the child, is her reverence for his personality. She 
believes that this, his most sacred gift, can develop only 

28 



FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 29 

in an atmosphere of freedom, not only the freedom of 
fresh air, sunshine, comfortable clothing, good food and 
broad open spaces, all of which she insists upon, but 
that far more vital freedom, the freedom from invasion 
by adult personaHties. Beheving that environment, 
while it cannot create character, can do much to advance 
or hinder its development, she puts within the child's 
reach that which tends to awaken and stimulate his 
powers and to satisfy his desire for creative efifort, then 
she leaves him to himself, confident that, thus untram- 
meled, his individuality will assert itself in a normal 
growth. 

"To stimulate life, — leaving it then free to develop, to unfold, 
— herein lies the first task of the educator. In such a delicate 
task, a great art must suggest the moment, and limit the inter- 
vention, in order that we shall arouse no perturbation, cause no 
deviation, but rather that we shall help the soul which is coming 
into the fullness of life, and \yhich shall live from its own forces." ^ 

The only hmitation she places about the child is the 
collective interest. She insists upon the need for check- 
ing whatever interferes with others or tends toward rude- 
ness, "but all the rest, — ^ every manifestation having 
a useful scope whatever it may be or under whatever 
form expressed must not only be permitted but en- 
couraged." 

BeUeving that the child should develop social virtues 
by personal contact with social problems, the school 
in her hands becomes a microcosm of the normal social 
community, wherein the child confronts and solves for 
himself real problems. Since the highest ideal of social' 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 115. 



r 



30 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 3 1 

organization is self-direction in the use of liberty under 
law, Montessori insists that the only legitimate discipline 
is that -which leads the child to control himself. In- 
stead of annihilating the will, her method starts in its 
development that fine type of independence of thought 
and action which comes only with mastery over one's 
self and one's environment. 

In sharp contrast with the custom which makes the 
teacher the dominating figure in the schoolroom is the 
Montessori plan, which places her in the background 
lest the obtrusion of her influence should come to domi- 
nate the child. This respect for a child's personality 
has been many times expressed in one form or another, 
and thinkers from the time of Socrates have urged its 
importance. Indeed, it is merely the apphcation of 
the law of all growth apphed in the field of education. 
We keep our hands off the young bird or the young flower 
if we wish it to reach its fullest maturity. We must 
keep our hands off the child if we wish it to come to its 
highest self-realization. This principle of the necessity 
for allowing the peculiarities of the individuality to 
determine the direction of development is frequently 
ignored in our ordinary schools. Our universal error 
is to shape the child, somewhat unconsciously, but 
nevertheless definitely, according to our own prejudices. 
Such coercion is fatal to the advance of the race in a 
differentiated and ever ascending civiHzation. 

Wherever there is organic life, circumstances must be 
favorable to the development of that particular organism, 
or it perishes. That the ancients observed this law is 
shown by the saying of Plutarch : "The soul is not a vase 



32 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

to be filled, but rather a hearth which is to be made to 
glow." And Rousseau says, speaking of Emile : "Now 
is the time for study. ... It is not I who make the 
choice. It is pointed out to us by nature herself." The 
phrase of Comenius : "In all operations of nature, devel- 
opment is from within," shows that he also felt the force 
of this truth. In Pestalozzi's school there were no books, 
there were only natural objects, showing that he believed 
that the soul must be developed through what is within. 
Herbart, too, insists that "The teacher ought to make 
it a point of honor to leave the individuahty as un- 
touched as possible ; to leave it the only glory of which 
it is capable, namely, to be sharply definable even to 
conspicuousness . ' ' 

Then Froebel, with remarkable vision, gathered up 
the theories of his predecessors, and, adding his own 
original insight, crystalHzed all that had been thus far 
apprehended into that wonderful scheme for develop- 
ment through self -activity — the kindergarten — ex- 
claiming, "We must launch the child from birth into 
the free and all-sided use of its powers." 

During the past twenty-five years, America has led 
the world in the child study movement. Much of this 
work centers about the behef that only free children 
can be profitably observed or make a normal develop- 
ment, and that the school of the future must deal with 
the individual child. President Jordan says, "The 
growth of individualism in education is the most promis- 
ing feature in the social outlook of America." President 
Hall asserts, "The only safety lies in the study of and 
better adaptation to the nature and needs of childhood." 



FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE J,l, 

Especially strong is the statement of John Dewey, 
"Only by being true to the full growth of all the individ- 
uals who make it up, can society by any chance be 
true to itself." And in the same vein, President Harper 
says, " IndividuaHsm, coordination and association 
are the keynotes to future progress along educational 
lines." 

Such are some of the mileposts which mark the prog- 
ress of the ideal of freedom in the minds of educational 
reformers. 

Now another one is added, and Doctor Montessori 
comes to us with the assertion that "All human virtues, 
all human progress, stand upon the inner force," that 
"No one can be free unless he is independent." She 
gives a radical illustration in her school of how these 
principles work out with young human beings. She 
has swept Italian teachers into the background, she 
has lifted the screws from seats in Italian schoolrooms, 
she has spread the walls to larger spaces. She has 
placed in children's hands self-corrective apparatus 
upon which they may exercise their powers. Best of 
all, she has freed the child's spirit, permitting him to 
think for himself, to use his own judgment and thus de- 
velop his own personality. 

Thoughtful students who go into the Montessori 
schools recognize the operation of this principle. In 
referring to these schools, one does not mean the bur- 
lesques upon the idea which one may see in Rome, but 
the real Montessori schools where the method is applied 
with painstaking care. Ideal conditions are difficult of 
attainment at all times, but it gladdens one's eyes to 



34 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 3$ 

behold the theory of growth through self-activity being 
steadily applied and children happily responding to it. 
It is also a sight in sharp contrast to what one sees in 
other elementary schools in Rome and throughout Italy, 
and, therefore, the more striking. Indeed, in many 
places on the continent the teacher seems to be the domi- 
nating figure in the schoolroom and her word the 
children's law. The contrast between these schools, 
founded upon the military idea of discipline and dom- 
ination, and Doctor Montessori's wise emphasis upon 
self-development through freedom and personal initiative 
is so great that the observer may be excused for using 
superlatives in describing what is seen. Even in Ger- 
many, where the kindergarten is native, there are many 
schools masquerading under that name which show 
scarcely any of the Froebelian spirit of freedom. 

The writer once visited a Board school in London 
where there was that painful quiet of suppressed, in- 
active children. Only one boy out of fifty moved in 
his place, and when he swung his feet into the aisle to 
make the spine-curving seat less uncomfortable, he was 
sharply reproved, and the teacher said by the way of 
apology, "I have had this boy but two days." One 
knew this without being told, and sadly felt that the child 
would soon succumb to the wet blanket treatment and 
be as unnatural and " good " as the others. In her strong 
chapter on "Discipline," Doctor Montessori says: 

"How shall one obtain discipline in a class of free children? 
Certainly in our system, we have a concept of discipline very differ- 
ent from that commonly accepted. If discipline is founded -upon 
liberty, the discipline itself must necessarily be active. We do 



36 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been ren- 
dered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a para- 
lytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined. 

"We call an individual disciplined when he is master of him- 
self, and can, therefore, regulate his own conduct when it shaU be 
necessary to follow some rule of life. Such a concept of active 
discipline is not easy either to comprehend or to apply. But cer- 
tainly it contains a great educational principle, very different from 
the old time absolute and undiscussed coercion to immobility." ^ 

The "directress," as Doctor Montessori prefers to 
call the teacher in her school, is not the most conspicu- 
ous person and the only really active agency in the school- 
room. She follows the lead of the scientist and is an 
observer of phenomena, interfering as Httle as is con- 
sistent with the logic of her theory. Doctor Montessori's 
own illustration of the purpose of teacher makes this 
point clear. She reminds us that the ideal guide who 
shows to a tourist a thing of artistic value simply says 
enough to enable the sightseer to understand and ap- 
preciate the object observed, then withdraws himself, 
for the object and not the guide is the center of inter- 
est. So the teacher must give necessary information 
and direction, then leave the child to think things out 
for himself. The garrulous teacher is an abomination 
to Doctor Montessori. She believes that the child 
smothered with words comprehends little that is said 
to him. 

That mothers as well as teachers ignore this fact is 
illustrated by the incident of the child whose mother 
invited the kindergartener for luncheon. After the 
guest had arrived, the mother called : "Come out of the 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 86. 



FREEDOM — Tire UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 37 

bathroom, Marie, Miss Smith is here and wishes to see 
you. Come, turn off the water and come out of the 
bathroom. You're not minding mother and you're 
getting your clean apron wet. Turn off the water and 
come out of the bathroom." After Marie had played 
in the water as long as she chose she came leisurely out 
and said, "Mother, your voice sounds just Hke a little 
bell : it goes tinkle, tinkle all the time." 

Doctor Montessori's ideal of the function of the teacher 
is simply the natural response to the familiar clamor of 
the child, "Let me do it myself," "I can do it alone," 
"I know how to do it," constantly forced upon mothers 
and teachers, and as persistently put aside by many of 
them as they bHndly follow the traditional method of 
doing for the child rather than allowing him to do for 
himself. Doctor Montessori resents this tendency of 
grown-ups to come between children and the things they 
are doing, to dominate and weaken intellects and wills, 
making children Hmp imitators and copyists. Her 
directress, like Froebel's ideal kindergartener, must 
be "passive, following, only guarding and protecting, 
not proscriptive, categorical, or interfering." 

"Froebel had such unbounded faith in the right tendency of 
humanity, and such abhorrence of the idea of the ' total depravity ' 
of chUdhood, that he taught in all his works that the teacher's 
duty is to place the child in proper conditions, and supply it with 
material adapted to its stage of development. Having done these 
things, he should reverently 'stand from between the child and 
God ' and watch it grow, using his developed wisdom to study each 
individual child and adapt special conditions to guard it from evU 
and stimulate its best and fullest growth." ' 

^ Froebel's Education Laws, Hughes, p. 156, D. Applcton & Co. 



38 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




The Silver is sorted into Boxes as a Final Step in 
clearing away the luncheon. 



FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 39 

Though Doctor Montessori's emphasis upon the law 
of liberty and the process of self-expression takes from 
the teacher certain prerogatives, the teacher is of no 
small importance. She is a vitalizing force, her work 
calHng for a high type of intelHgence. 

While she must follow the lead of the scientist and be 
an observer of natural phenomena, she must do more 
than this. Her natural phenomenon is the human 
soul. She must watch the unfolding life, to discern 
which acts hinder and which aid its growth ; judging, 
measuring, estimating, making note of disordered move- 
ments and those that express content of thought ; learn- 
ing how she may help, but always keeping in mind that 
the activity must come from within the child. Thus in a 
spirit of love, service and reverence she may help human 
souls in their struggles toward the achievement of the self. 

"When the teacher shall have touched, in this way, soul for 
soul, each one of her pupils, awakening and inspiring the life 
within them as if she were an invisible spirit, she will then possess 
each soul, and a sign, a single word, from her shall suthce ; for each 
one will feel her in a living and vital way, will recognize her and will 
listen to her. There will come a day when the directress herself 
shall be filled with wonder to see that all the children obey her with 
gentleness and afifection, not only ready, but intent, at a sign from 
her." 1 

The patience exhibited by Doctor Montessori is no 
doubt the outgrowth of long, untiring efforts to awaken 
the groping faculties of feeble-minded children, with 
whom hurry or confusion would produce utter failure. 
Normal children can and do endure much nagging at 
I The Montessori Method, p. 116. 



40 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

the hands of adults, but it has its evil effect in sapping 
their nervous energy and vitaKty. 

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, in describing her first visit 
to a Montessori school, says : 

"That collection of little tots, most of them too busy over their 
mysterious occupations even to talk, seemed, as far as a casual 
glance over the room went, entirely without supervision. Finally, 
from a corner, where she had been sitting (on the floor apparently) 
beside a child, there rose up a plainly dressed woman, the expres- 
sion of whose quiet face made almost as great an impression on me 
as the children's greetings had. . . . She lingered beside us some 
moments. I noticed that she happened to stand all the time with 
her back to the children, feeling apparently none of that lion- 
tamer's instinct to keep an hypnotic eye on the little animals 
which is so marked in our instructors. I can remember distinctly 
that there was for us school children actually a different feel to 
the air and a strange look on the familiar school furniture during 
those infrequent intervals when the teacher was called for an in- 
stant from the room and left us, as in a suddenly rarefied atmos- 
phere, giddy with the removal of the pressure of her eye. But 
when this teacher turned about casually to face the room again, 
these children did not seem to notice either that she had stopped 
looking at them or that she was now doing it again. 

"We used to know, as by a sixth sense, exactly where, at any 
moment, the teacher was, and a sudden movement on her part 
would have made us all start as violently and as instinctively as 
little chicks at the sudden shadow of a hawk . . . and this, al- 
though we were often very fond indeed of our teachers. Remem- 
bering this, I noticed with surprise that often when one of these 
little ones lifted his face from his work to ask the teacher a ques- 
tion, he had been so unconscious of her presence during his concen- 
tration on his enterprise that he did not know in the least where 
to look, and sent his eager eyes roving over the big room in a search 
for her." ^ 

^A Montessori Mother, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, pp. 10-12, Henry 
Holt & Co. 



FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 4 1 

The temptation is to do for children the things they 
might do for themselves, ignoring the great law of growth, 
which is that strength comes only through struggle, and 
that effort often gives greater pleasure than result. The 
overcoming of obstacles, the mastering of difficulties, 
gives more real joy than the achievement when it is 
reached. 

It calls for much greater intelligence, tact and skill, 
to direct thirty active, energetic Uttle beings, all free 
to move and choose for themselves, than to control that 
many seated in rows, who are not allowed to speak or 
even turn in their seats without permission. Teachers 
are often pronounced a success because they keep good 
order, when, in reality, this discipline by force need not 
presuppose one desirable quality in the teacher. The 
great test comes when children are given their freedom. 
If they behave in an unnatural way, and do not know 
how to use it, if they show lack of self-control and judg- 
ment, turning freedom into license, their actions tell 
of suppression and restraint. But if, on the contrary, 
children are self-directive and cooperative among their 
fellows, we know that they are gradually being liberated 
from the necessity of outward control. Doctor Mon- 
tessori uses the word "discipline" in referring to training 
rather than controlling. She encourages in children 
a kind of independence which comes only with the con- 
sciousness of personal power and deep-seated self-respect. 

"Growth and independence involve that true discipline which 
comes through work. For as Montessori well says, 'DiscipUne 
is a path, not a fact, it is a means, not an end,' and the very be- 
ginning of it appears when the child, keenly interested in doing, 



42 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 43 

sets himself to the accomph'shment of a definite task. It is at- 
tained indirectly through the direction of a child's own spontaneous 
efforts. It needs for its perfection the repetition of a series of com- 
plete acts through work which he instinctively desires and toward 
which he naturally turns and by means of which, as he gains more 
and more power and freedom, he sets his personality in order and 
sees new possibilities of growth." ^ 

There is a natural sequence in the developing process 
as it appHes to obedience. There is first the uncon- 
scious, unawakened spiritual disorder of the unmoral 
being. Then the awakened consciousness, the separa- 
tion from the self, the struggle toward obedience, and 
later the power to do through a deepened consciousness, 
the development of will, intelhgence and social spirit ; 
the adjusting of the inner self to the outside world ; 
joyous obedience, spiritual order, freedom. 

Doctor Theodate Smith has expressed Doctor Mon- 
tessori's concept in the following way : 

"When in the first, confused stage the child does not obey a 
command, it is as if he were psychically deaf. He hears, but does 
not understand. In the second stage he seems to understand, 
but has not yet the complete command of his inner process that 
enables him to complete the external act promptly, and we say 
that he is not quick to mind. In the third stage he obeys promptly 
and cheerfully, showing pride in his knowledge of how to obey. A 
child thus trained is not only obedient, but he is self-disciplined and 
has acquired a poise and calm that orders his actions and deepens 
and enlarges his moral life. This analysis of Dr. Montessori's is 
entirely in accord with the results of special studies of obstinacy 
which show this to be not, as is popularly supposed, evidence of 
a strong will, but as due rather to a weakness of will, which the 

1 A Guide to the Montessori Method, Ellen Yale Stevens, p. 55. 
Frederick A. Stokes Company. 



44 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

child cannot overcome. He may even wish to obey, and yet 
persist in his disobedience from inability to overcome the psychic 
cramp. Some of these cases are real tragedies of childhood 
which might be avoided by an enlightened teaching of obedience." ^ 

If one follows the Montessori line of thinking, it is 
easy to understand why she taboos all manner of the 
more material and physical prizes and punishments, 
beHeving that success or achievement on the part of the 
child is in itself sufficient reward, that failure is merely 
an indication that the child has not reached that point 
in his development where he is ready for the thing 
attempted. If a child is skillful with his hands, it is 
because he has gained that kind of motor control, 
coupled with intellect and will power, which makes 
such skill possible and enjoyable to him. The thing 
accomplished, being the result of his development, calls 
for no more special credit or praise than the act of run- 
ning or jumping in play. Even the effort which the result 
cost came in response to an inner impulse which it 
would have been difficult for the child to resist. 

Have you not seen the look of surprise on the face of 
a child when praised for a thing he had done with great 
pleasure and without conscious effort? Perhaps you 
have seen this same child come to overestimate his 
effort because of unnatural stimulus and settle back to 
indifference. 

Failure in a bit of handiwork should cause us to make 
the opposite inference. The child is not up to this 
particular activity as yet. To attach undue importance 
to his failure, to blame, punish or humiliate him is to 

^ The Montessori System, Theodate L. Smith, p. 44. Harper and Brothers. 



FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 45 

magnify his fault and thus to give him wrong notions 
about himself.^ 

If one stops to think of it, the excessive use of praise 
and blame, prize and punishment, is indulged in primarily 
by the mothers and teachers whose ideals are not the 
highest. The teacher who wishes to force all children 
into a certain position of body or action of mind will 
invariably resort to these incentives. The mother who 
desires to dispose of all questions with the least possible 
thought or trouble to herself will use these means, often 
showing great annoyance and punishing severely for 
a shght fault, and praising profusely or rewarding 
extravagantly a slight exhibition of virtue. 

A certain father and mother were called next door to 
see the grandmother, who was ill, and in the emergency 
they left two small sisters to care for themselves. On 
their return at bedtime both children were asleep. To 
their gratification they found that the older sister had 
covered the httle one with the only available blanket. 
When the children awoke the father impulsively said : 
"You were a very good girl to take such care of little 
sister. Here is twenty-five cents to pay you for it." 

The next night there was a repetition of the occurrence. 
Father and mother were again called out. This time 
older sister forcibly compelled little sister to he down 
and be covered up, though she was neither sleepy nor 
cold. The first night the child had acted on a generous, 
kindly impulse which needed no reward. On the second 
occasion her motive had dropped to a lower level. 

Doctor Montessori urges us not to judge children by 

1 The Child, Tanner, Chapter X. 



46 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



the standards of adults. Their love of activity, their 
curiosity, their impulsiveness, sometimes lead them into 
wrong acts whose motives are innocent of wrong. There- 
fore, we should try to judge by motives rather than con- 
duct, gradually pointing out the relation of cause and 




The Buttoning and Lacing Frames. 



effect, and training the intelligence and will to volun- 
tary obedience. In the Montessori school, the positive 
side of the child's nature is built up and little faults are 
often apparently ignored, though the scientific directress 
makes mental note of them with a view of strengthening 
any apparent weakness. 

Doctor Montessori believes that in this particular 
period of the child's growth, a certain amount of selfish- 



FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 47 

ness is not only natural but necessary. If the child is 
forced into social obligations beyond his years, his 
future is made ineffective. Professor Kirkpatrick tells 
us that the selfishness of a young child is necessary to 
his development. " If the will is weakened, the individual 
is weakened, and is of no force in society." 

When the child first comes into contact with a group 
of his own age he is quite unwilling to share. He 
reaches out as far as he can and draws all the blocks to 
himself. A little egotist, he must grow into altruism 
by experience with the social group. 

When we expect that the child will always *'go back 
of the lady instead of in front of her"; that she will 
always express appreciation for every service, we are 
forgetting that the forms that seem easy for us because 
of long years of contact with people are neither natural 
nor necessary for the child. One mother said to her 
child : ''Did you thank the lady for the apple ?" "Oh, 
yes, mother," said the child, "I thanked her but I didn't 
tell her so." 

Montessori would place within the reach of children 
that sort of an environment which will make it possible 
for them to carry on a sort of process of self-making. 
With every physical comfort provided, with didactic 
material which provokes investigation and experiment 
within prescribed limits, with plants and pets to be 
nourished and cared for, she would establish among the 
children a kind of miniature community where each child 
looking into eyes on a level with his own may test his 
strength and skill with others of his own stature, may 
practice promptness, courtesy, consideyration for others, 



48 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




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FREEDOM — THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE 49 

neatness, order and accuracy, while gaming some 
notions of the fundamentals of the social virtues by deal- 
ing with real social problems. 

Every striking feature of Doctor Montessori's school 
may be traced directly to the reverence she feels for 
that divine spark of selfhood in the child which makes 
it possible for each individual to make his own contri- 
bution to society. Every violation of formal school 
regime, from the radical forms of liberty to the auto- 
educational materials, has as an aim the freeing of the 
child through self-activity.^ 

One who would judge this method fairly must keep 
constantly in mind this purpose of its originator and 
hold himself open-minded toward its exemplification. 
It is easy for the timid to hold any theory as an imprac- 
ticable ideal. It is an epoch-making event when a high- 
spirited student and champion of childhood makes 
the venture of faith and gives full trial to the theory 
in its working day by day in a schoolroom. 

The technique, the method of securing this liberty, may 
be critically considered and weighed, but as to the 
fundamental idea, no intelligent twentieth century edu- 
cator will quarrel with Doctor Montessori in her emphasis 
upon the inalienable right of every child to free, natural, 
unhampered growth. In her strong plea for liberty 
found in the fifth chapter of her book, she says : 

"We cannot know the consequences of suffocating a spon- 
taneous action at the time when the child is just beginning to be 
active : perhaps we suffocate life itself. Humanity shows itself 
in all its intellectual splendor during this tender age as the sun 

' The Individual in the Making, Kirkpatrick, Chapter VI. 



50 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

shows itself at the dawn, and the flower in the first unfolding of 
the petals ; and we must respect religiously, reverently, these first 
indications of individuality. If any educational act is to be 
efficacious, it will be that alone which tends to help toward the 
complete unfolding of this life." ^ 

The fact that this principle of liberty is not new to 
educators should not detract from the honor we give 
this wise Italian woman, for though we have recognized 
the theory, do the rank and file of us live up to it in our 
pedagogic practice ? Are we not in our daily contact 
with children incHned to suppress, subdue, control, to 
make a fetish of order, to demand grown-up standards, 
to require children to think our thoughts after us ? 
Do we not take words out of their mouths and work 
out of their hands ? Do we not lead rather than follow 
in many of their activities ? So long as these things are 
true (and who will deny them) and until we have brought 
this ideal of freedom out of the realm of theory and put 
it into general practice, we who are teachers should 
welcome each new illustration of this fundamental 
principle. 

Though some may not agree with certain of Doctor 
Montessori's more radical ideas, the widespread interest 
and discussion of this method is prophetic of a better 
day for all children, and since the children of that day will 
constitute the social group when they are mature, it is 
prophetic, too, of a higher plane of citizenship. 
^ The Montessori Method, p. 87. 



freedom — the underlying principle 5 1 

Points for Discussion 

1. Name some common practices in our elementary 
schools that violate the principle of freedom as formu- 
lated by Montessori, 

2. Illustrate and explain the statement that only free 
children can be profitably observed. 

3. Why is it so easy for the teacher or parent to form 
the habit of dominating the child ? Give the effects of 
such domination (a) upon the child, (b) upon the adult. 

4. Show that the principle of freedom does not conflict 
with training children for social cooperation. 

5. In applying this principle of freedom in the home 
and the school, what mistakes are parents and teachers 
very apt to make ? 

6. Why are the teachings of our greatest educational 
writers so persistently ignored in our educational prac- 
tice ? 

7. Describe a schoolroom that in your judgment would 
best conform to the principle of freedom. 

8. Compare the evils of repressing the child's activities 
with the evils of the incorrect expression of his activities. 

9. Give illustrations of the effects upon the child, (a) of 
overpraise, (b) of too harsh censure. 

10. Compare Doctor Montessori's methods and ideals 
with Pestalozzi's as formulated in "How Gertrude 
Teaches Her Children." 



CHAPTER IV 

THE child's world OF OBJECTS 

The world is without form and void to the tiny infant, 
when ''Mother's eyes are baby's skies" and when the 
Hmp fingers vaguely clutch at the soft blanket. At 
first, tastes and odors, sights and sounds, are not heeded. 
What comes to be ordered consciousness is in earliest in- 
fancy only capacity or unawakened potentialities. 

This capacity resides in a physical mechanism appear- 
ing to have a "perpetual motion" endowment. To the 
uninitiated, all the throwing about of arms and legs, 
the opening and shutting of hands and eyes seems like a 
waste of energy. It has taken mankind some hundreds 
of thousands of years to appreciate the real significance 
of these first movements. Only recently has the very 
long "first dress" given way to a shorter one which 
encourages the abundance of physical activity ordained 
by Nature for the child's growth. The swaddling 
clothes of the "Bambino," the cradle of the papoose, are 
painful reminders of the older order of things. 

Movements bring the child into contact with his 
strange new world, but the experience of a movement 
resulting in a particular contact means so little in the 
beginning that it is difficult to describe. It is little 
more than "awareness" due to a change from the state 

52 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 53 

of non-movement and general contact to one of movement 
and particular contact. Some later recurrence of this 
particular experience will have a tinge of familiarity, 
a feeling element in this state of "awareness." This 
feeling of "having met before" is the germ of memory. 
When, at the presentation of one of the regularly in- 
volved stimuli to the appropriate sense organ, the 
remembrance or image is sufficiently vivid to control 
the repetition of the whole activity, "the beginning of 
the organized consciousness" may be said to be present. 
It would no doubt surprise many parents to reahze that 
the child's mind cannot organize itself without countless 
and varied movements. The purpose of movement is 
popularly supposed to be the acquiring of control of the 
body in holding up the head, sitting, standing, and 
doing things with the hands, whereas the purpose of the 
sense organs is supposed to be the awakening and devel- 
oping of the mind. 

There are two groups of defective conditions found 
in children. In the first group the physical equip- 
ment for tactile-motor activity is normal, but that of 
the sense organs of sight, hearing, taste, and smell is 
wholly or partially lacking. In the second group the 
sense organs are normal but the power of moving the 
trunk, head, and limbs is reduced very close to the 
level of paralysis. 

Which one of these two groups of defective conditions 
is more serious in a young child, judged from the 
standpoint of his capacity to develop into a human 
being, is clear when we compare the case of Helen 
Keller with that of a defective child of the opposite type. 



54 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 5$ 

Helen Keller's handicaps did not extend to the taste 
and smell senses ; she gives them much credit for making 
experiences varied and rich. Gesell says, "Read her 
fine encomiums of the 'black sheep' senses, taste and 
smell, and you will realize that the very foundation 
of her spiritual power is rooted in the wealth of emo- 
tion derived from the loving use of these bodily senses." 
Her most direct avenue of approach to intelligence, 
however, has been through "motor-tactile communion" 
with her environment. 

The case representing the other group of defective 
conditions is familiar to any one who has seen the vege- 
tative existence of the child in whose nervous system 
the motor or the associative neurons, or both, do not 
perform their work except in the elementary physiological 
functions of respiration, circulation, digestion and excre- 
tion. "Human life" is not possible for such a child, 
though the sense organs are not structurally imperfect. 
Their development is of course arrested, because of the 
absence of the contacts which muscular and tactile 
activity would have brought. 

To one who has read Doctor Montessori's book, it is 
evident that she places a high value upon motor-sensory 
development. She believes (i) that the home and the 
school have not realized its importance and inter-rela- 
tions, (2) that they have identified immobility with order 
and goodness, and mobihty with disorder and naughti- 
ness, (3) that they have overvalued sight and hearing, 
and undervalued (to the verge of ignoring them) the 
tactile-muscular activities, and (4) that they have too 
seldom sought to know and to correct curable defects 



56 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

and to plan systematic training exercises with suitable 
materials. 

Referring to this, G. Stanley Hall says, 

" For many years, sense training has been theoretically com- 
mended and practically discouraged. Educators lay themselves 
open to a pecuHar charge who insist that all knowledge has its 
foundation in the senses, and who yet see that almost all a child's 
time allotted to study is taken up with poring over books." 

Experts in any line, and artists, with power to see, 
hear, and appreciate much that is lost to the average 
man, illustrate what the senses may become through 
exercise. Such exercise should not be overdone nor 
placed out of its natural relationships, but childhood is a 
time of great importance for the storing up of satisfying 
experiences with things, and if this period is allowed to 
slip by without such experiences, later life is impover- 
ished.^ If parents and teachers realized this close 
relation between sensori-motor activities and growth, 
the average home and school environment would be 
enriched by much that is now lacking, and greater free- 
dom would be granted the child. There would be also 
careful observations which would result in tests to 
ascertain the exact physical condition of the sense organs. 
Sometimes after years of blundering, a teacher or parent 
discovers that a supposedly dull or apparently degen- 
erate child has some slight obstruction to the natural 
sensory activity which causes a derangement of behavior.^ 

1 Principles of Educational Practice, Klapper, Chapters V, VT. 

^ The Story of the Mind, Baldwin, Chapter V. Provision for Excep- 
tional Children in Public Schools, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin 
1911, No. 14. 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 57 

It seems a far call from the child's disordered chaos 
of sense impressions to the man's ordered cosmos of 
inner consciousness, but the definite and close connec- 
tion between early sense impressions and later bodily 
health, mental alertness, and spiritual insight is close 
and exact. Hence the child's future happiness, intelli- 
gence and efficiency depend in a large measure upon 
three conditions. 

First. Healthy normal sense organs capable of 
receiving stimuli from the outer world. 

Second. The power of the mind to take up, assimilate 
and use these materials of sense impressions, transform- 
ing them into creative ideas with a dynamic tendency — 
that is, a tendency to go out in some form of expression. 

Third. A developing nervous system consisting of 
(i) sensory nerves; (2) sensory areas of the cortex; 
(3 ) motor areas of the cortex ; (4) connective or associa- 
tive fibers joining these two areas of the cortex ; (5) motor 
nerves terminating in the muscles. This is the mech- 
anism that enables the child to acquire the mastery 
of his environment. 

Equal in importance to this perfectly working sensori- 
motor apparatus, is an environment which is rich in 
opportunity for its stimulation. No child can grow 
normally in surroundings which are barren of natural 
interests, which provide only for grown-up tastes, and 
where everything is just out of reach of tingling fingers 
or not suitable for the use of small investigators. 

In considering a child's environment, one should keep 
in mind that his prime interest in the objects that 
surround him is in what he can do with them. In other 



58 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

words, their different qualities seem to come to conscious- 
ness as demanded for appropriate behavior.^ The simple 
toys given to the baby are chosen upon the basis of the 
way they respond to his various activities. The rattle 
that goes into his hand and his mouth, its various sounds 
as he shakes it or strikes it against another object, makes 
it appeal through the ear. The ball that can be subjected 
to the hand and mouth activities, its movement as it rolls 
away or falls, catches the eye. It calls for reaching (or 
for waiting for others to do so) and returning. The blocks 
that can be put in and taken out of their box countless 
times, that can later be piled up and tumbled over, are 
typical examples of playthings which satisfy the instinc- 
tive tendency to be active and which lead to simple motor 
coordinations and elemental sensory impressions ; for 
consciousness develops according to the demands made 
upon it for adjustment. As time goes on, other toys are 
given to the child — toys which are imitations of pro- 
cesses and objects in the world of man and nature. 
Sounds, colors, movements, textures, densities, weights 
and temperatures are revealing themselves not only 
through these playthings, but also through the actual 
life of adults. 

So we see that early impressions of objects are so 
wrapped up in motor activity that it is difficult to 
analyze them or to tell when they are acquired. King 
says, ''It is possible that the emphasis remains very 
largely on the activity rather than the thing until the 
child is five or six years of age. Later, things, as such, 

1 The Psychology of Child Development, King, Chapter V. The 
University of Chicago. 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS $g 

stand out; and still later, the complex system of ends 
which they may serve come to be interesting." 

With the introduction of such materials as sand, 
blocks, clay, colored crayons, paints, scissors, and paper, 
the world of sensori-motor activity is tremendously 
extended, for the time comes when the doing of an act 
reaches the level of control by definite and related ideas. 
Making miniature objects or pictures of objects is a 
more highly organized reaction upon environment than 
the early instinctive handling, tasting, and pounding 
responses to stimuli. 

In addition to an environment containing (i) abundant 
sensory stimuli, adapted to the child's particular stage 
of growth, and (2) opportunity for varied ways of 
expressing the impressions received by reaction upon 
environment, there should be (3) frequent repetition of 
impression, reaction and expression. 

"Don't touch," is an easy thing to say and is often 
a protection to bric-a-brac or china, but one might as 
well say to a child, "Don't grow," "Don't learn," 
"Don't try to understand." He takes to touching as 
he takes to eating, and it is fortunate that he does so, 
for the mind cannot get on without sense food any more 
than the body can grow without nourishment. The 
small fingers clasp about the apple. The short arms 
try to encircle a tree trunk. The cushioned finger tips 
stroke pussy's fur. Every surface, every solid, every 
liquid within tiptoe-reach is challenged to tell of its 
texture, its size, its dimensions, its weight, its tem- 
perature, by the way it responds to the subtlest of sense 
organs — touch. 



6o 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




The Sense of Touch. 
The use of textures refines tactile discrimination. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 6 1 

Sometimes touch is defective ; more often it is un- 
developed. To understand what it may contribute 
to life, one must turn to such cases as those already 
referred to. One blind student when asked if he would 
have his sight restored replied: ''If it were not for 
curiosity, I would rather have long arms. It seems to 
me that my hands would teach me better what is pass- 
ing in the moon than your eyes or telescope." Helen 
Keller's marvelous power to "see" through delicate 
finger tips is illustrated by her visit to an art gallery, 
where she enjoyed many statues with her seeing fingers. 
Moving them lightly over the marble "Melancholy," 
she remarked. "This face feels sad." Many a woman of 
normal vision had passed that statue without catching 
the sculptor's motive, but Helen Keller, through the 
mastery of form gained by the use of touch, the funda- 
mental sense, has acquired a culture possessed by few 
other women of our time. So we see that this so-called 
"lower" sense may be of the highest value and sig- 
nificance, not only for intellectual perception but for 
soul awakening as well. 

Helen Keller says : 

"I only know that the world I see with my fingers is alive, 
ruddy, and satisfying. Touch brings the blind many sweet cer 
lainties which our more fortunate fellows miss because their sense 
of touch is uncultivated. In touch is all love and intelligence. 

"The thousand soft voices of the earth have truly found their 
way to me — the small rustle in tufts of grass, the silky swish of 
leaves, the buzz of insects, the hum of bees in blossoms I have 
plucked, the flutter of a bird's wings after his bath, and the slender 
rippling vibration of water running over pebbles. Once having 
been felt, these loved voices rustle, buzz, hum, flutter, and ripple 
in my thought forever, an undying part of happy memories." 



62 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

"In the realms of wonderment where I dwell 
I explore life with my hands ; 
I recognize, and am happy ; 
My fingers are ever athirst for the earth, 
And drink up its wonders with delight, 
Draw out earth's dear delights ; 
My feet are charged with the murmur, 
The throb, of all things that grow. 

"This is touch, this quivering, 
This flame, this ether. 
This glad rush of blood. 
This daylight in my heart. 
This glow of sympathy in my palms. 
Thou blind, loving, all-prying touch. 
Thou openst the book of life to me. 
The noiseless little noises of earth 
Come with softest rustle ; 
The shy, sweet feet of life ; 
The silky flutter of moth wings 
Against my restraining palm." ^ 

Passages from Helen Keller are quoted in the chapter 
on "Touch" in that fascinating book "The Normal 
Child and Primary Education." The authors say of her : 

"Well may she sing a Chant of Darkness, for in this darkn,ess 
touch is quickened, and in touch lives the deepest appreciation of 
things. 

"Though we cannot develop in every child the wonderful sen- 
sibility of Helen Keller, we can have more respect for the deep 
values that lie hidden in touch. They are often vague, and nearly 
always inarticulate. Because these values cannot be put into 
words they have no recognition in the schools ; but they can be 
communicated by teachers who show an enthusiasm for simple 
things." 

1 The World I Live In, Helen Keller, pp. 42, 59, 191 . The Century Co. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 63 

On another page they say : 

"A little child may stroke a soft blanket with d delight so in- 
tense, and yet so reverent and tender, as to be almost spiritual. 
Through no other avenue does the child get such a wealth of ar- 
tistic enjoyment. Who can number the thrills of pleasure every 
eager child gains by the mere stroking of smooth surfaces and 
rondures, polished woods and marbles, pebbles, silks, vegetables, 
fruits, animals? And what of the endless rapturous experiments 
with the textures, the pliancy, elasticity, and rigidity of all sorts 
of materials ? 

" Then there are the larger dermal joys and adventures in which 
face and cheek, and sometimes the whole body, participate, — the 
big tactual experiences with the elements, fire, frost, cold, wind, 
mist, sod, beach, and sea. These massy experiences, though less 
descriminative than the delicate touches of the finger tips, are all 
the more bucolic and exuberant, for they are profoundly dyed with 
the interests, joys, and longings of the race ; and there is a resur- 
gence of feeling when the child reexperiences them. Hence his 
orgy of enjoyment when he is free to wade, wallow, and splash 
in mud or water. Bareheadedness, barefootedness — and on 
swimming and athletic days, barebodiedness — are the biological 
rights of every child. Only by such generous exposure to wind 
and weather, to earth, water, and sky, can nature make those rich, 
massive impressions which get to the depth of the soul. Every 
child needs a rich range of touch experiences, — of the delicate for 
the appreciation of things refined, of the grosser for the apprecia- 
tion of things strong, stately, and sublime."^ 

Later in life, sight takes from touch much of its 
responsibility, but the accuracy of eyesight depends in 
large measure upon the touch and motor experiences 
of childhood in regard to form, texture, direction and 
distance. We grow to depend upon touch less as the 

^ The Normal Child and Primary Education, by Arnold L. and 
Beatrice C. Gesell, pp. 11 2-1 14. Ginn & Co. 



64 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

eye through visual and muscular sensations symbolizes 
touch sensations, and gives us the information which 
touch at first supplied. 

"The intellectual value of touch, the power to give us knowledge 
of the external world, is seldom placed high enough. Without the 
sense of touch the child would not only see things flat, but the 
myriad forms that fill the earth and sky would never be known to 
him. All of them would be alike to him — neither rough nor 
smooth, fine nor coarse, sharp nor blunt, round nor square, far 
nor near, in high nor low relief. In fact, he would have no idea 
in the concrete or in the abstract of any such qualities. He would 
in manhood be tumbling downstairs, over chairs, into the fire- 
place, into the washtub, and everywhere else, just as he does in 
childhood before this sense has taught him the relief and relations 
of objects. Without it he would know neither sea nor land, wood 
nor mineral. If man were deprived of the sense of touch, every 
loom, every ship, every railway car, every industry in which man 
is engaged, would instantly stop. All these are dependent upon 
its high cultivation for their successful conduct." ^ 

While special emphasis should be placed upon touch, 
provision should also be made for enriching the sensory 
life of the child through sight, hearing, taste and smell. 

Sight may bring to the child a world of beauty in 
tints and tone, light and shade, and graceful arrange- 
ment. He may acquire the spiritual possession of 
everything within the range of his horizon by the me- 
dium of this aesthetic sense, or he may become aware 
only of the commonplace. To look without observing 
is the habit of those who ''having eyes to see, see not." 

Hearing, too, is so closely associated with the best and 
most refining influences of life that the importance of 

1 The Study of the Child, Taylor, p. 29. D. Appleton & Co. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 65 

caring for its organ and training its powers of discrim- 
ination can scarcely be overestimated. To catch the 
varied music of the out-of-doors, the song of water, tree 
or bird, the subtle Hghts and shades of speech, the rich 
tones of an organ, is to have the emotional nature stirred, 
and to be lifted to higher levels of thought. 

Taste and smell — two outposts of the body — stand 
ready to protect and guard the child's physical comfort 
and lead him to finer discriminations in matters of 
ethical taste. 

Perhaps no one has better expressed the true signifi- 
cance of sense organs and their activity than has Froebel, 
who says : 

"Every external object comes to man with the invitation to 
determine its nature and relationships. For this he has senses, 
the organs that enable him to meet that invitation. 

"The early beginnings of education are most important because, 
they give a bias to all after-development. Early education must 
deal with the physical development and influence the spiritual 
development through the exercise of the senses." ^ 

His Mother Play motto on The Revelation of Sense 
runs thus : 

"As each new life is given to the world, 
The senses — like a door that swings two ways — 
Stand ever 'twixt its inner, waiting self 
And that environment with which its lot 
Awhile is cast. 

" A door that swings two ways : 
Inward at first it turns, while Nature speaks. 
To greet her guest and bid him to her feast, 

' Education of Man, Froebel, Chapter II. D. Appleton & Co. 
F 



66 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

And tell him of all things in her domain, 

The good or ill of each, and how to use ; 

Then outward, to set free an answering thought. 

And so, swift messages fly back and forth 

Without surcease — until, behold ! she, who 

Like gracious host received a timid guest, 

Owns in that guest at length her rightful lord, 

And gladly serves him, asking no reward ! 

This parable, dear mother, is for you. 

Whom God has made his steward for your child. 

All Nature is a unit in herself, 

Yet but a part of a far greater whole. 

Little by little you may teach your child 

To know her ways, and live in harmony 

With her ; and then, in turn, help him through her 

To find those verities within himself, 

Of which all outward things are but the type." ^ 

The broad sweep of this motto suggests the carrying 
over of the basic conception of physical taste into a 
higher field where conduct is estimated by a sweet spirit, 
a soft answer or a well-rounded day. As impressions 
enter the "door that swings two ways" the child begins 
a lifelong process of arranging, organizing and modifying 
his environment. Not satisfied with its appearance, he 
learns its essence as well. Discrimination and choice 
begin to appear ; judgment and will are developed ; and, 
as he makes over his environment to meet his needs, he 
makes himself over in the process, struggling ever toward 
that highest goal of mankind, which is self-realization 
through self-activity. When we consider how much sur- 
roundings have to do with the attainment of this goal, 

1 Mottoes and Commentaries of Froebel's Mother Play, Blow. 
D. Appleton & Co. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 67 

we find ourselves asking, what shall the child's eyes rest 
upon ? What shall his fingers touch, his ears hear, his 
palate taste, his nostrils inhale ? Walt Whitman's 
poem is suggestive here. 

"There was a child went forth every day, 
And the first object he looked upon, that object he became, 
And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part 

of the day, 
Or for many years or stretching cycles of years. 

" The early lilacs became part of this child, 

And grass and white and red morning-glories, and white and 
red clover, and the song of the phoebe bird. 

And the third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter, and 
the mare's foal and the cow's calf, 

And the noisy brood of the barnyard or by mire of the pond side. 

And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there, 
and the beautiful curious liquid. 

And the water plants with their graceful flat heads, all be- 
came part of him." ^ 

The nature and value of healthy, vigorous, sensory 
activity and its relation to mental and moral awaken- 
ing is recognized by all students of child psychology, 
but no other educator has offered for normal children 
a plan so elaborate and exact for sense gymnastics, 
nor gained by a sequence of developing exercises such 
marked results as has Doctor Montessori. Regarding 
her didactic materials, she makes the following points 
clear in " The Montessori Method." 

First. Many of these materials were not invented by 
her, although modified and perfected to meet the needs 
of normal children. 

^ Leaves of Grass, Whitman. David McKay, Publisher. 



68 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Second. Some of the materials are similar to those 
used in experimental psychology, but the process does 
not grow out of the conclusions of experimental psy- 
chology. The one is a testing process often consuming 
the energy of the child, the other is an educative process 
developing the energies of the child. 

Third. While the materials make education possible 
for defectives, they provoke auto-education with normal 
children. 

Fourth. Because the materials are self-corrective, 
they minimize the teacher's activity. 

Fifth. Materials are presented by the lesson plan of 
Seguin which contains three steps : 

a. The association of sensory perception with name. 

b. The recognition of objects by name. 

c. The remembering of the name which corresponds 
to the object. 

Sixth. The procedure is from a few sharply contrasted 
stimuli to many stimuli with slighter shades of difference. 

Seventh. Errors are not corrected ; materials are put 
aside until another time on the supposition that the 
child who fails to grasp the point of the lesson is not 
ready for it. 

Eighth. Much instruction is individual, but the 
children often form themselves into groups. 

Ninth. Efforts are sometimes made to isolate the 
sense activities in order to intensify the functioning of a 
given one. 

Tenth. The interference of the teacher is to be 
reduced to a minimum so as not to deprive the child of 
his right to cope with his own problems. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 



69 



Eleventh. All lessons are simple, concise and objec- 
tive. 

The materials designed for the education of the va- 
rious senses are fully described and their use explained in 
"The Montessori Method," Chapters XII, XIII. They 
are here briefly grouped, as obtainable in America.^ 
I. Touch. 
Material. 

a. A rectangular board divided into two equal 

parts, one having the surface smoothly 
polished, the other 
covered with sand- 
paper. (Fig. I.) 

b. A board like the pre- 

ceding, the surface 
of which is divided 
crosswise into alter- 
nate strips of board 
and sandpaper. 
(Fig. I.) 

c. A collection of paper 




Fig. 



from 



strips varymg 
fine cardboard to coarse sandpaper. 
A chest of drawers containing pieces of typical 
kinds of cloth, velvet, wool, crash, silk, cotton 
and hnen. (Fig. 2.) 



" From an evolution point of view touch is the first distinctly 
differentiated sensation, and this primary position it still holds in 
our mental life." — James' Psychology. Henry Holt & Co. 



^ The House of Childhood, 200 Fifth Ave., New York manufac- 
turers. 



70 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



" If the child's knowledge reaches to a solid foundation of sense 
training, the floods of time will beat in vain upon that knowledge. 
Other things may pass away, but that remains while the brain 
lasts." — Halleck.^ 




-'-^^U 



Fig. 2. 



"They do verily exercise the tactile sense. They enjoy keenly 
touching any soft pleasant surface and become exceedingly keen 
in discriminating between the differences in the sandpaper cards." 

— MONTESSORI. 

II. Temperature. 

Material. — Metal bowls filled with water of 
varying degrees of temperature, with ther- 
mometer for testing. 

"It would appear that certain nerve filaments have special 
temperature functions entirely distinct from those of touch." — 
Taylor. 

1 Education of Central Nervous System, Halleck. The Macmillan Co. 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 



71 



"I also have the children put their hands into cold, tepid and 
warm water, an exercise which they find most diverting." — ■ 

MONTESSORI. 

III. Weight. 

Material. — Small wooden tablets, of pine, wal- 
nut and wistaria weighing respectively 24, 18 



and 12 grams. 



(Fig. 3-) 




Fig. 



"The game attracts the attention of those near, who gather in 
a circle about the one who has the tablets and who take turns in 
guessing. Sometimes the children spontaneously make use of the 
blindfold, taking turns and interspersing the work with peals 
of laughter." — Montessori. 

IV. Muscular and Tactile. 
Material. 

a. Twelve each of Froebel's third gift and 

fourth gift blocks. 
h. Miscellaneous objects. 

" The most fundamental data for our perception of distance, 
direction, size, and form come through the feel gate. Only han- 
dling and manual activity can put vividness and content into the 
perceptions of the outside world. The child must begin in very 
infancy its acquaintance with the resistance and construction 
qualities of paper, sand, cloth and word." — Gesell. 



72 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



V. Sight. 

Material. 

I. Dimensions. 

(i) Solid Insets. — -This material con- 
sists of three series of wooden 
cyHnders set in corresponding 
holes in solid blocks of wood 
55 X 8 X 6 centimeters in di- 
mension. Each series contains 
ten cylinders. In the first, the 




Fig. 



diameter varies ; in the second, 
the height; and in the third, 
both the diameter and height. 
(2) The Tower. — A series of ten 
wooden cubes decreasing in size 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 



73 



one centimeter each from a base 
of ten centimeters to a base of one 
centimeter. (Fig. 4.) 





mm 




Fig. 5. 

(3) The Broad Stair. — A set of ten 
wooden blocks decreasing in size 
from a base of ten centimeters 
as found in the largest to a base 
of one centimeter as found in 
the smallest. The length which 



74 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



is constant is twenty centimeters. 
(Fig. 4-) 
(4) The Long Stair. — A set of ten 
rods, the first being one meter in 
length ; the last, one decimeter ; 
the intervening rods diminishing 
one decimeter each. The spaces 
on each rod are painted alternately 
red and blue. (Fig. 4.) 
Form. (For both sight and touch.) 

a. Plane geometric insets of wood, 
consisting of a six-drawer 
cabinet containing (Fig. 5) : 
(i) Four plane wooden squares and 
two frames contain a rhom- 
boid and a trapezoid. 
(2) Six polygons. 



JL. 


w 


f 


ma 


k 


▲ 




A 


f 


bv 


A 


A 


/ 


' 


/■'., 


.' 


m 


m 


Si 


w 


w 


m 



■ ■ 


I 


1 1 


1 


DD 


D 


D D 


D 


1 . ; ; 


1 1 


L il 


1 1 


m • 


• 




'.■■■ 


• 




,0 





i'--i-i-' 


n 



m • 


m 


• 


% 


# 


00 










c 





SI 


# 




A 


♦ 


na 


ol 











^^"-y 


»» 





Fig. 6. 



(3) Six circles diminishing in size. 

(4) Six quadrilaterals containing 

one square and five rectangles. 

(5) Six triangles. 

(6) A variety of forms. 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 



75 



h. Plane Geometric Forms. (Fig. 6.) 
(i) Cards containing blue patterns 
the size of the insets found in a. 

(2) Cards whereon the same figures 

are represented by outlines 
of blue paper. (Fig. 6.) 

(3) Cards upon which are drawn in 

black the narrow outlines of the 
same figures. (Fig. 6.) 




3. Color, 

a. Two 



Fig. 7. 

boxes of eight compartments 
each, containing 64 color tablets. 
These are of red, orange, yel- 
low, green, blue, violet, black 
and brown, presented in a series 



76 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



b. 



of eight tints and shades. 
(Fig. 7-) 
Brightlv colored stuffs and balls. 



"Of all the silent teachers that influence us from our entrance 
into this world to our going out of it, color is perhaps the most 
subtle and most mysterious." — • Harrison. 

" Proceed from a few stimuli strongly contrasting to many 
stimuli in gradual differentiation always more fine and impercep- 
tible." — MONTESSORI. 

VI. Hearing. 

Material. 

a. Cylindrical boxes containing sand and 
pebbles which when shaken produce 
sound varying in volume and tone. 
(Fig. 8.) 




Fig. 8. 



b. 
c. 
d. 
e. 

I- 
g- 



Bells varying in volume and pitch. 
Whistles varying in volume and pitch. 
Drums and bells (graded) . 
Stringed instruments. 
Voice. 

Silence and whisper-tests of accurate 
hearins. 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 77 

VII. Taste. 

Material. — Various solutions, acid, sweet, salt, 
bitter. 

"Taste is an outpost of the whole system for enabling it to 
assimilate the beneficial and reject the harmful." — Dewey. 

VIII. Smell. 

Material. — Flower and food odors. 

"AU these pretty flowers 
Have their own sweet smell, 
Often without seeing 
We their names can tell. 

" So our eyes we cover 
That we may not see 
While the fragrance tells us 
What the flower must be." ' — Poulsson. 

" The best way to look at nature is to recognize it as a body of 
educative materials pressing upon the children from all sides and 
calling out their activities and impressively iterating the simplest 
real lessons." — McMurry.^ 

For the beginning lessons, the children "wait upon 
the directress." That is to say, they busy themselves 
in the opening days with many things indoors and out ; 
they do not all advance upon the didactic material and 
make selections for use. Such a beginning would 
necessarily defeat its purpose, which is definite sense- 
training. When wise and convenient, the directress 
invites one child or another's attention to one of the 

1 Letters to a Mother, Blow. D. Appleton & Co. 

2 Special Method in Elementary Science. McMurry. The Mac- 
millan Co. 



78 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

simpler pieces of the apparatus. Others may watch 
if they choose, may take turns if they become interested, 
or may be given a different piece of apparatus. The 
method is individual and in accordance with the three 
periods of Seguin. 

Typical Exercises. 
I. For Touch. 

(i.) First Period of Seguin. 

The sandpaper board is used. The directress 
says in distinct, well-modulated voice, 
"This is rough," "This is smooth" (lightly 
drawing the child's finger over the surfaces). 
(No unnecessary word is spoken to distract 
the child's attention or to confuse him.) 

(2.) Second period. 

With no interruption of the child's trend of 
thought, with no comment, the directress 
says, "Show me rough," "Show me smooth." 

(3.) Third period. 

After a brief time of silence, the directress 
leads to the final step by saying, "What is 
this?" Child answers, "Rough." "What 
is this?" Child answers, "Smooth." The 
child is then left with the material. If a child 
fails to respond satisfactorily, the teacher does 
not correct him or point out his error. Care 
is taken to see that the hands are clean. 
They are sometimes dipped in tepid water to 
make the sense more acute. Sight and touch 
are both used in the beginning in the recog- 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 79 

nition of form. Later, touch alone, or sight 
alone are emphasized. 

"Often after the introduction of such exercises it is a common 
thing to have a child come to you, and closing his eyes touch with 
great deUcacy the palm of your hand or the cloth of your dress, 
especially any silken or velvet trimmings." — Montessori. 

2. For Hearing. 

(i.) This is loud. (Shaking the box containing the 

coarsest pebbles.) 

This is soft. (Shaking the box containing the 

finest sand.) 

Find the loud one. Find the soft one. Which 

is this ? Which is this ? 
(2.) At another time a third box may be introduced. 

This time the exercise may run : This is loud. 

This is louder. This is soft. 
(3.) The eight pairs of boxes may be placed in order 

so that there is perfect gradation from loud to 

soft. 
(4.) Duplicate sets of bells may be used. The child 

strikes one bell, then finds another which has a 

corresponding tone. 
(5.) A most valuable lesson in ear training as well as 

bodily and spiritual poise is derived from the 

game of Silence. This exercise is so well 

described by Dorothy Canfield Fisher that 

she is quoted here at length. 

"One exception to the general truth that the children in a 
Montessori school do not take concerted action is in the 'lesson 
of silence.' It is certainly to visitors one of the most impressive 
of all the impressive sights to be seen in the Children's Home. 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



" One may be moving about between the groups of busy chil- 
dren, or sitting watching their hvely animation or Ustening to the 
cheerful hum of their voices, when one feels a curious change in 
the atmosphere like the hush which falls on a forest when the sun 
suddenly goes behind a cloud. If it is the first time one has seen 
this 'lesson,' the effect is startling. A quick glance around shows 
that the children have stopped playing as well as talking, and are 
sitting motionless at their tables, their eyes on the blackboard 
where in large letters is written 'Silenzio' (Silence). Even the 
little ones who cannot read foUow the example of the older ones, 
and not only sit motionless, but look fixedly at the magic word. 
The Directress is visible now, standing by the blackboard in an 
attitude and with an expression of tranquillity which is as calming 
to see as the meditative impassivity of a Buddhist priest. The 
silence becomes more and more intense. To untrained ears it 
seems absolute, but an occasional faint gesture or warning smile 
from the Directress shows that a little hand has moved almost 
but not quite inaudibly, or a chair has creaked. 

" At first the children smile in answer, but soon, under the 
hypnotic peace of the hush which lasts minute after minute, even 
this silent interchange of loving admonition and response ceases. 
It is now evident from the children's trance-like immobility that 
they no longer need to make an effort to be motionless. They 
sit quiet, rapt in a vague, brooding reverie, their busy brains lulled 
into repose, their very souls looking out from their wide, vacant 
eyes. This expression of utter peace, which I never before saw on 
a child's face except in sleep, has in it something profoundly touch- 
ing. In that matter-of-fact, modern schoolroom, as solemnly 
as in shadowy cathedral aisles, falls for an instant a veil of con- 
templation, between human soul and the external realities of the 
world. 

" And then a real veil of twilight falls to intensify the effect. 
The Directress goes quietly about from window to window, closing 
the shutters. In the ensuing twilight, the children bow their 
heads on their clasped hands in . the attitude of prayer. The 
Directress steps through the doqr into the next room and a slow 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS 



voice, faint and clear, comes floating back, calling a child's name. 

'"El . . . e . . . na!' 

" A child lifts her head, opens her eyes, rises as silently as a little 
spirit, and with a glowing face of exaltation, tiptoes out of the 
room, flinging herself joyously into the waiting arms. 

" The summons comes again, 'Vit . . . to . . . ri . . . o !' 




Preparing for the Game of " Silence." 

" A little boy lifts his head from his desk, showing a face of sweet, 
sober content at being called, and goes silently across the big room, 
taking his place by the side of the Directress. And so it goes until 
perhaps fifteen children are clustered happily about the teacher. 
Then, as informally and naturally as it began, the 'game' is over. 
The teacher comes back into the room with her usual quiet, firm 
step ; light pours in at the windows ; the mystic word is erased 
from the blackboard. The visitor is astonished to see that only 
six or seven minutes have passed since the beginning of this new 
experience. The children smile at each other, and begin to play 



82 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

again, perhaps a little more quietly than before, perhaps more 
gently, certainly with the shining eyes of devout believers who 
have blessedly lost themselves in an instant of rapt and self-for- 
getting devotion." ^ 

3. In the activity of weighing, the tablets are rested 
upon the palms, one in each hand, and weighed and 
grouped in piles according to their kind. The natural 
color of the wood makes this a self-corrective exercise, 
i.e. the child has taken the exercise without looking at 
the tablets ; he now recognizes at a glance any errors he 
has made. 

4. A beginning color exercise is that of matching, i.e. 

a. The colors are placed in a pile upon the table. 

b. A child is given a bright color from a duplicate 

set and asked to match it from the table. 

c. Lkter a number of tablets of differing tones of the 

same color are matched and arranged side by 
side with their duplicates on the table. 

d. More colors are introduced until the child can 

match all that are in the box and arrange them 
in their order. 
Color Game. — Colors are piled on the table pro- 
miscuously. Each child is given one color with tints 
and shades. The game is to match these from the 
table, the group working together. 

Testing Color Memory. — Show the child a color, then 
have him cross the room and select its match from a table. 

5. In the exercise for the tactile-muscular sense the 
cubes and bricks are mixed and placed on the table be- 

1 A Montessori Mother, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, pp. 43-45. Henry 
Holt & Co. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 83 

fore the child. After he becomes familiar with them his 
eyes are closed and he places the cubes at the right side 
and bricks at the left. Opening his eyes, he sees his own 
errors if he has made them. 

" These exercises of the stereognostic sense may be multiplied 
in many ways. . . . They may raise any small objects — toy 
soldiers, little balls . . . coins. They come to discriminate be- 
tween small forms varying slightly such as corn, wheat and rice. 
They are very proud of seeing without eyes, holding out their 
hands and crying 'Here are my eyes, I can see with my hands !'" 

— MONTESSORI. 

In each case the directress tries to teach with con- 
ciseness and simpUcity, the particular lesson. She aims 
to bring each new sensory experience to the child with a 
minimum number of words and movements, thus con- 
fining his attention to the central fact of the expe- 
rience, i.e. a particular quahty of a material object. 
Upon the child's ability to grasp the lesson (make no 
error) depends his continuance of the activity. The 
teacher bases the next one in the series upon the ability 
and upon the interest he shows ; frequently this is made 
manifest in specific requests to the teacher ; at other 
times, the mastery of previous exercises is taken as 
evidence. 

A kindergarten student recently attempted to teach 
her niece of three by means of Seguin's lesson plan. 
The result was as follows : This small relative, visiting 
at her aunt's house, spied two brass candlesticks, one 
containing a red candle, the other, a yellow candle. 
The young aunt, thinking this an opportunity to apply her 
new-found method, said to the child, pointing to the red 



84 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

candle, "This is red"; pointing to the yellow candle, 
"This is yellow." The first step finished, she gave the 
second. "Show me red," "Show me yellow," to which 
the child responded. Feeling sure of the child's interest 
in the color, she went on to the third. "What is this?" 
pointing to the red candle. "This," said the child, "is 
a brass candlestick," bearing out Doctor Montessori's 
statement that the child's mind is apt to be confused re- 
garding an object that has several striking characteristics. 
It is believed that the spontaneous investigation of 
surroundings will come after the child has had such 
experiences as have been here described. He will apply 
his knowledge. A voluntary "explosion into the ex- 
ploring spirit" comes as the natural result of the child's 
having had the object placed in his hand, of having his 
attention centered upon a particular aspect of it through 
the activity of some sense. He now transfers this 
evidence to other things within his environment, which, 
of course, should be a rich and varied one. Doctor 
Montessori says : 

"We cannot create observers by saying, 'Observe,' but by 
giving children the power and the means for this observation, and 
these means are procured through education of the senses. Once 
we have aroused such activity, auto-education is assured, for re- 
fined, well-trained senses lead us to a closer observation of the 
environment, and this, with its infinite variety, attracts the 
attention and continues the psycho-sensory education." 

Landscape gardening, schoolroom decoration and 
beautifully rendered, simple but good music must be 
counted upon as other sources of sensory experiences 
with educative values. 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 85 

It would seem at first thought that the custom of 
placing all girls in aprons of one color and boys in 
aprons of another color and all on the same lines might 
be cutting off a vital source of sensory experience in 
general life — as uniformity in dress detracts from 
individuality. However, aprons placed on the children 
of the poor cover many discrepancies and make it 
possible for all to be clean and self-respecting. There 
are obvious reasons why the aprons might be of equal 
advantage to the overdressed children of the rich. 

Observing the general happiness, intelligence and 
effectiveness of the little Montessori workers in the good 
schools in Rome, inspires faith in the didactic apparatus 
as valuable sensori-motor stimuli. But in considering 
the results achieved, one must keep in mind the general 
conditions which have made such success possible : 

First. Desirable environment aside from the ap- 
paratus. 

Second. The skillful scientific directress. 

Third. The free, unhampered child. 

To assume that such results can be secured by the use 
of the didactic materials without the conditions men- 
tioned, is to overestimate their value and to belittle the 
principle and technique which give them their vitality 
and effectiveness. These materials will add an interest- 
ing and helpful feature in any home or school where 
there are young children, provided the mother or teacher 
is able to see them in their relationships to other things 
in the environment and other sources of education. 
Students of the method should be willing to make a 
thorough study of Doctor Montessori's book, bringing 



86 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

to it the sympathy and insight which will make possible 
(a) the gaining of her point of view, and (b) the measur- 
ing of that point of view by the best present-day stand- 
ards, psychological, biological and social. Without this, 
the didactic materials for sense training will suffer the 
fate which the kindergarten materials have at times, 
when, in the hands of ignorant and untrained persons, 
they have proven valueless in nursery and school. The 
greatest drawback to the promotion of kindergarten in- 
terests in America has been the employment by school 
boards of incompetent, untrained so-called kindergar- 
teners, on the supposition that "any one can teach small 
children. " A community with such an ineffective worker 
soon decides that it does not care to continue its kinder- 
garten, although knowing in reality no more about the 
real kindergarten than the small boy did about matri- 
mony when he told his teacher he could not give a defi- 
nition but knew that it was something his father and 
mother had had enough of. 

The best friends of the Montessori method will be those 
who bring to its study the true Montessori spirit, which 
is that of the scientist who cares more for the truth than 
for systems as such, and who, while he is open-minded 
toward weaknesses, puts prejudice and sentimentality 
aside and recognizes all that is fundamental and de- 
sirable. In the consideration of this unique didactic 
material, there are naturally certain questions that arise. 

First. In connection with the aspect of special sense- 
training, have animals, have men reached their present 
level of structural and functional sensory apparatus 
through special exercises, or through demands made upon 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 87 

them by efforts necessary for self-preservation, such as 
capturing or producing food, clothing and shelter ? 

An answer to this with a warning may be found in the 
following quotation from Dr. Earle Barnes. 

"It is clear that before the child can live effectively he must 
arrange his stream of consciousness in series determined by use, 
form, size, color, smoothness or roughness, quantity, time, place, 
causation, or other qualities. 

"With savages this arrangement of mental images largely waits 
on accidents of pain and pleasure. 

" Things that please are selected and sought ; things that offend 
are avoided. But with advancing intelligence, parental solicitude 
leads each generation to aid its children in making this arrange- 
ment quickly and effectively. Hence arises education. 

" The most obvious way to assist the yoimg, or the retarded minds 
of a later age, is to select samples belonging to one kind of serial 
arrangement, such as danger, desirability, use, form, color, time, 
language, or causation, and arrange them in a graded series which 
can be used as an exercise ground for the unformed mind. This 
mind is then led back and forth along this series until it gains the 
power to select and use the crude material of its daily experience 
after a similar pattern. 

"Those interested in making these mental gymnasia are prone 
to grow so absorbed in their creations that after a time they forget 
that the justification for these exercising grounds is the aid they 
may give inexperienced minds in mastering the confused experience 
that makes up their real lives. To such compilers and teachers, 
the artificially arranged exercises become reality, and scholarship 
takes the place of living." * 

This quotation from Dr. Barnes suggests two impor- 
tant points which we may apply in considering the 
didactic materials. 

1 Kindergarten Review, April, 1913. Report of Address. Dept. of 
Superintendence, N.E.A., 1913. 



88 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

(i) Although the race has evolved its skill of sense 
discrimination through behavior with content and not 
formality, and although sensory content develops 
according to demands made for adjustment, for con- 
sistency in behavior, the parent or teacher may lead 
the child to a shorter cut in the educative process by 
giving repetitional experiences when memory is keen and 
habits are quickly formed. 

(2) No material (Montessori or kindergarten) must 
be allowed to narrow the wide range of adjustments 
by taking the place of the rich sensory experiences, 
informal, unconventional, which the child may have 
when his own curiosity prompts him to discover how 
rough the chestnut burr is, or how velvety the moss. 
The story is told of the child who has been given many 
formal exercises for the recognition of the second gift, 
solids (sphere, cylinder and cube), and much training in 
looking for these forms in his surroundings. One day 
he exclaimed as he spied a dog on the street, "Oh, mother, 
see, there goes a long cyUnder with four httle cylinders 
under it, a cyHnder sticking out behind it and a sphere 
in front of it." 

With the free open courts and gardens, children in the 
Montessori schools do explore their environment and the 
school time is not all absorbed with the didactic appa- 
ratus. As used in these schools it does seem to fulfill her 
claim of helping in the formation of the habit of obser- 
vation and of leading to the development of aesthetic 
taste and a natural interest in elementary science. 

Second. Can a part of the brain be isolated from the 
rest of that organ for the sake of stimulating the activity 



THE child's world OF OBJECTS 89 

and functioning of one sense ? There is no doubt but 
that the closing of the eyes intensifies the impression 
through touch, but neurologists tell us that the absolute 
isolation of one sense is impossible. They also insist 
that sense gymnastics cannot bring about sense sharpen- 
ing. Dr. Adolph Meyer is quoted as saying, "The word 
sense- training is a misnomer. It should be called 
attention and reaction training." 

Third. Coupled with the didactic materials, should 
there be creative transformable stimuli which have the 
possibility of teaching the child processes and relation- 
ships ? Should the repetitional exercises be joined with 
others which introduce unexpected and unusual situa- 
tions for the child to meet? To quote the child study 
specialist, Elisabeth Ross Shaw : 

" Professor Thomas says that the only difference between the 
mental efficiency of men and women is that men have been forced 
to form habits of reacting freely and swiftly to the emergencies of 
a swiftly moving environment (animals, enemies, machinery, etc.), 
while women have reacted to the more fixed environment of gar- 
den and house. He concludes that brain power is developed by 
the individual being forced to make swift, necessary movements, 
and that an environment is educative in proportion to the variety 
of its sudden hindrances in the carrying out of the individual's 
strongest purposes ; thus stimulating his powers of invention and 
adaption. If this is true, no part of the educational system, 
from the Kindergarten up, can afford to ignore it." ^ 

Fourth. Another question which comes to mind 
is this : Can mental power generated in one field be trans- 
ferred to another ? ^ Can the expert who handles and 

^ Address N. E. A., Salt Lake City, 1913. 

2 Education, Thorndike, p. 11 2-1 15. The Macmillan Co. 



90 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

discriminates textures detect a counterfeit in paper 
money more quickly than the average man ? Does the 
tea taster prove a better judge of wines because of his 
highly speciaHzed training ? Will the ability to memorize 
words or poems necessarily mean an equal ability to do 
the same with figures, dates, or mathematical formulae ? 
If it is true that the transfer is proportionate to the 
amount of identity between the practice field and the new 
field, and to the activity of an ideal of good working 
habits, is it important that all didactic material be 
used with a knowledge of this fact in order that results 
not attainable may not be looked for ? 

All the material should be used, with a knowledge that 
sensori-motor activity is most important, that the 
material meets spontaneously manifested needs during 
an early stage of child Hfe and that it has therefore a 
definite contribution to make to child development. 
Especially is this true if the one who deals with this ma- 
terial is able to distinguish between the external name 
and physical equipment and that vital quality, embodied 
in principles intelHgently worked out, which gives to 
any method its permanence and power. 

Questions for Discussion 

1. In every school there are two types of children : 

(i) The sensory type ; (2) the motor t3^e. Give 
the characteristics of each t)^e. 

2. State the interrelation of impression and expression. 

3. Why has expression in school work always lagged 
behind impression ? 



THE CHILD S WORLD OF OBJECTS QI 

4. What natural instincts of childhood will act upon 
and react toward such materials as the didactic ap- 
paratus ? 

5. Make a comparative study of the educative use 
made of objects by Montessori, Froebel and Pestalozzi. 
Show the extent to which these uses seem to point to 
development along such lines as initiative, independ- 
ence, imagination, creative effort, reasoning, judgment, 
organization of ideas, appreciation of the beautiful. 



CHAPTER V 

language: oral and written 
Writing, Phonics, Composition, Reading 

The spectacular feature of bursting into writing 
experienced by Montessori children has caught the 
public eye and tended to the overemphasis of a feature 
of the work which, though valuable in itself, is but a 
natural outgrowth of the fundamental ideas from which 
it springs. 

The attention given this feature of the method is no 
doubt accounted for by our lack of satisfactory methods 
of teaching children to write. The slow, labored move- 
ments of the finger writing of the average child in express- 
ing his own or another's thoughts on paper or black- 
board, the muscular tension so apparent in this unnat- 
ural eifort, with its reaction upon mental processes, 
makes us long for some means by which the child may 
master the mechanics of writing and revel in the enjoy- 
ment of this mode of expression with free, rapid and 
legible hand. 

The plan herein described seems to point toward this 
goal, the following principles being taken into account : 

1. The child should have gained power to execute 
before he is required to perform any task. 

2. Eyesight in childhood is not accurate nor strong, 
hence overstrain should be avoided. 

92 



language: oral and written 



93 



3. The sense of touch is keen and the child likes to 
reenforce sight and sound impressions by handhng. 

4. Two distinct elements are involved in writing, i.e. 
the holding of the pencil, the formation of the letters. 

In short, Doctor Montessori's scheme is as follows. 
She aids the child to manipulate the pencil through work 
which she calls design. She _____ ^____ ___^ 

teaches him the sounds of the ^|^h^|^|^|^| 
letters and fixes these in his ^^^H^^^H^^^H 
mind by means of visual, audi- ^^^^ ^^^^M ^^^^ 
tory and muscular memory. ^^^H ^^^H ^^^H 
Then she teaches composition ^^^| ^^^H'^^^H 
of words. The child is now H^HH ■■J^H I^HH 
ready to write the phonetic ^^^H ^^^H ^^^H 
language and can compose any m^ |^H||| I^Ih 
word he hears clearly pro- Pig. i. 

nounced. 

The preparation begins with exercises in making 
designs of geometric figures, the object of which is to 
teach the child to manipulate the pencil. 

Metal insets and their corresponding frames are used. 
(Fig. I.) These are placed upon little tables with sloping 

tops. (Fig. 2.) 

The child places 
a frame upon the 
paper and with a 
colored pencil 
which he has chosen traces around the empty center. 
Then he takes away the frame, finds the corresponding 
inset, places it upon the figure and draws around it with 
a pencil of different color. He then proceeds to fill in 




mam 



Fig. 



94 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



the outline. At first the strokes are short and irregular, 
due to lack of muscular control. 

Gradually the child becomes more skillful, and with 
longer and more sweeping movements produces Hues 
nearly parallel, keeping well within the boundary of the 




Fig. 



outline. This, like other activities, is self-corrective 
in its tendency. It develops into the more advanced 
step shown in Fig. 3. Here the child not only outlines 
and fills in the central space, but fills in also the 
space made by drawing around the outer edge of the 
frame. Later more difficult designs are made, Fig. 4. 

"If we could count the lines made by a child in the filhng in of 
these figures, and could transform them into the signs used in 
writing, they would fill many, many copy books ! Indeed, the 
security which our children attain is likened to that of children 
in the ordinary third elementary grade. When for the first time 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN 



95 



our children take a pen or a pencil in hand, they know how to 
manage it almost as well as a person who has written for a long 
time." 1 

The next step is to associate the sound of a letter 
with visual and muscular tactile impressions, by the use 
of the single letters of the alphabet made of sandpaper 
and mounted on cards. 




Fig. 4. 

Using Seguin's lesson plan, the vowels are first intro- 
duced, followed by the consonants. 

''This is 'a'. This is 'e.' 

"Touch 'a'. Touch 'g.' 

" What is this ? What is this ? " ^ 

The sound of the letter is given rather than the name, 
and a consonant sound is at once blended with some 
vowel with which the child is famihar. Teaching m with 
a, one would say, "w, a, ma." This lesson involves 
tracing — the child's index finger moving over the 
sandpaper letters as in writing, first with eyes open, 
1 The Montessori Method, p. 274. ^ /jj^.^ p. 276. 



96 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



UUlolMaiX 



iiOilQ 



later with eyes closed, thus bringing into play the 
muscular tactile senses. The material is self-corrective, 

as the roughness of the 
letter and the smoothness 
of the card guide the fin- 
gers aright. (Fig. 5.) 

The child is now ready 
for the composition of 
words. This is accom- 
plished through the mov- 
able alphabet, the single 
letters of which are the 
same in dimension as the 
sandpaper letters and are 
placed in a box of com- 
partments, the vowels being blue and the consonants 
pink. (Fig. 6.) 

"It is most interesting indeed to watch the child at this work. 
Intensely attentive, he sits watching the box, moving his lips 




Fig. 5. 




almost imperceptibly, and taking one by one the necessary letters, 
rarely committing an error in spelling. The movement of the hps 
reveals the fact that he repeats to himself an infinite number of 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN 



97 



times the words whose sounds he is translating into signs. Al- 
though the child is able to compose any word which is clearly 
pronounced, we generally dictate to him only those words which 
are well known, since we wish his composition to result in an idea. 
When these familiar words are used, he spontaneously rereads 
many times the word he has composed, repeating its sounds in a 
thoughtful, contemplative way." ^ 



iWvUL 



AGE 5 

llkLloIa 
•M^A.cla'Vn.u/nti ton la 

n. 



cfK AJL/'VOlqi'iIimav 



f 



UTYVCL I^OAaAO. ^OO/Lla/ 



AGE 5 



ta, YIO-IX A(k''M IA\- 






The preparation for writing is completed, yet Doctor 
Montessori does not request the child to try to write. 
This he eventually does, however. When one child 
starts, others follow. They can write any word they 
know by sound. This is where the American child 
is at a disadvantage. He cannot always tell how to 
spell a word by the way it sounds, and until our pioneers 
in simpUfied spelHng give us EngKsh words which sound 



^The Montessori Method, p. 283. 



98 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

the same to the ear as they appear to the eye, we shall 
not, except with phonetic words, be able in America to 
make use of such a method as Doctor Montessori pro- 
poses — at least not without modifications. 

In the training school of the Iowa State Teachers 
College some interesting results followed an experiment 
with this idea. An effort was made to carry out the plan 
of preparing for writing with as few modifications as 
possible. This was an easy task during the first two 
steps in the method, but when it came to the third — 
"The Composition of Words" — it was necessary to use 
great pains in selecting such words as were purely 
phonetic and at the same time familiar to the child. 
Added to these were some words from the lists given 
out by the Simplified SpelHng Board. It was interesting 
to see with what delight the children composed these 
words with their cardboard letters. The entire method 
of procedure was something like this : 

1. The work in design was carried out. This the 
children enjoyed heartily. 

2. The sandpaper letters were introduced and traced, 
the three periods of Seguin being followed. Every 
attempt was made to provide a free, quiet atmosphere, 
conducive to attention. The tracing was done first 
with the forefinger, then with the fore and middle finger, 
then with the unsharpened end of a pencil, and finally 
in the air. Next, one child traced and another named 
the letter in a simple game. 

3. Words were dictated and the children built them 
up with the movable alphabet. They were later en- 
couraged to make any word they could spell. A game 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN 99 

developed in which one child would make a word and 
others would tell what it was. 

The results were somewhat as follows : 

1. The mastery of the crayon was acquired. 

2. The children learned the names of the letters and 
how to write them in a short time. There was no 
element of drudgery. 

3. The arm movement came easily and naturally and 
finger writing was not called into use. 

4. Added interest and attention were given to the 
written form of words. 

5. The work was in no way forced ; on the contrary 
it was a continual source of interest and pleasure. 

6. Children of their own accord used the colored 
crayons to write the words they knew. 

7. The writing was legible from the first. 

8. Growth came from voluntary action. 

The following is an outline of this series of activities as 
described in " The Montessori Method." ^ 

First Period. 

1. Purpose. 

The purpose of the exercises is to develop the 
muscular mechanism necessary in holding 
and using the pen or pencil. 

2. Process. 

The metal insets and their frames are taken by 
the child and used thus : 
a. A metal frame is placed upon a sheet of 
paper and with a colored crayon the 
1 The Montessori Method, pp. 271-296. 



lOO THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

child draws a line around the empty cen- 
ter; when the frame is taken away the 
child sees the figure in outline. 

b. He then places the metal inset over the figure 

he has just drawn and follows the contour 
of this inset with a different colored 
crayon. When he lifts the metal inset 
he sees the same figure produced by two 
different pieces of apparatus. 

c. The next step is the filKng in of the figure. 

This work is continued until many and 
varied designs have been made. 
3. Result. 

Lines tend to stay within the outline, to become 
longer, more regularly placed, and evenly 
colored, showing that the child has 
estabHshed a number of definite coordi- 
nations which are involved in the control 
of a pencil. 

Second Period. 

1. Purpose. 

The purpose of the exercise is to establish the 
visual-muscular images of the alpha- 
betical signs and the muscular memory of 
the movements necessary to writing. 

2. Process. 

The single letters of the alphabet made of sand- 
paper and mounted on cards are used. 
a. First Step. 

The association of the visual, muscular and 
tactile images with letter sounds. 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN lOI 

1. Using sandpaper vowel cards the 

directress says, "This is a," 
''This is e." 

2. The child traces as he is shown the 

direction of movement by which 
the sounded letter is formed. 

3. The child later traces with eyes 

closed, being guided by tactile and 
muscular impressions. For work 
by himself the child would doubt- 
less be aided by having a line 
drawn under each letter; this 
would indicate the correct holding 
of the card. 
h. Second Step. 

The acquisition of visual, muscular, tactile 
images of letter forms. 

The directress says "Give me a," "Give 
me e," thus encouraging the child 
to compare and recognize the 
letters when he hears the sounds 
corresponding to them. 

If the child does not recognize the letters 
by sight, he traces them. 
c. Third Step. 

The mastery of the auditory image and 
the abihty to give it utterance and 
apply it. 

The directress, holding up the "e," says, 
"What is this?" The child re- 
sponds, "e." "What is this?" 



I02 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

3. Results. 

First Step — The child has images of letter forms 

and can make them. 
Second Step — He has fixed the auditory image 

of the letter. He associates sound 

with sign and points out the letter. 
Third Step — He completes the letter mastery by 

giving utterance to letter soimds. 

Third Period. 

1. Purpose. 

The purpose is to utilize this letter mastery in the 
building up of words. 

2. Process. 

By means of the use of letters cut out and classi- 
fied in distinct sections of a box the child 
arranges, on table or rug, the letters which 
constitute famihar words. 

The directress pronounces the word slowly and 
distinctly, the child forms the word upon 
the surface before him.^ 

Here again we find the possibility of self -correc- 
tion, as after the word is placed the child 
may sound it through and detect his own 
errors. 

This process consists of three steps : 

a. The child selects his letters one by one from 

the box. 
h. He arranges these letters in form to represent 
a word. 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 283. 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN 103 

c. He puts the letters in their respective places 
in the box, guided by the size of the com- 
partments and by the lettefs'which are 
glued to the bottom of the same. 
3. Result. 

By this practice there is a quickening of the 
recognition of letter forms. Some day 
the feeling and thought back of words 
come forth, and the child writes, — ■ he 
bursts into writing that is legible from the 
first. ^ The accompanying illustration 
shows the various phases of the process 
as follows : First child, at left and rear, 
with box of letters. Second child, metal 
frame, the table ; exercise in design. 
Third child, placing plane insets of wood 
on cards. Fourth child, the first Seguin 
step: "This is a." Fifth child, build- 
ing letters into words. A child's delight 
in the discovery of this new pOwer is thus 
described by Doctor Montessori. 

"The child who wrote a word for the first time was full of ex- 
cited joy. . . . Indeed, no one could escape from the noisy mani- 
festations of the little one. He would call every one to see, and if 
there was some one who did not go, he ran to take hold of their 
clothes, forcing them to come and see. 

" Usually this first word was written on the floor and then the 
child knelt down before it in order to be nearer to his work and 
contemplate it more closely. After the first word, the children 
with frenzied joy continued to write everywhere. I saw children 
crowding about one another at the blackboard, and behind the 

' The Montessori Method, pp. 288-289. 



r 



104 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



^''^ \ ' ^t^^fe^ 


1 




iom^'i 


jp||. ^<^- ,j J ^ »'^ 




'iSl 


i^^ia^BEa 


i^if^ 




^i^RI^Ip^o 






j^Wj^J^^^/^ 





L 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN I05 

little ones who were standing on the floor another line would form, 
consisting of children mounted upon chairs, so that they might 
write above the heads of the little ones. In a fury at being 
thwarted, other children, in order to find a little place where they 
might write, overturned the chairs upon which their companions 
were mounted. Others ran toward the window shutters or the 
door, covering them with writing. In these first days we walked 
upon a carpet of words." ^ 

To aid in bringing together the results of these three 
periods of the process of writing, the following graph may 
be of use : 



Control of instrument 
Mastery of letter form 
Composition of letters 
into words 



Process of writing 
words 



Phrases 

Sentences 

Stories 



The basic ideas underlying this plan for teaching 
writing are as follows : 

1. The childish impulse for scribbhng is directed into 
an activity having permanent value. 

2. The muscular and tactile senses are very active in 
the early years. This results in the accumulation of a 
multitude of images which function later in interpreting 
quickly and accurately what is presented to the eye. 
Eyestrain is lessened through this use of the tactile- 
muscular mechanism. 

3. Time, effort and nerve force are economized by a 
process which, quickly and without undue stimulation, 
produces happy, legible writers. 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 289. 



io6 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



Does this acquisition of writing contribute to other 
aspects of the mastery of verbal language ? 



Age 6y«ara 7 rnomtht 

ITLaiXid-t so nixxaau^ n 1 1 

Loimun/u- 
So TUT AC-mxrvKt. a nt/nuuU' 

Li Uxta, itt Vj 



Ln.^.^ao, Lac4.-tTaa' ti 



it' (. I- j\Ltoiin<> L bollo- n^ La^ 
aaa-t\.cuiAi K-C'. 



Aqc s 



dw- [Ml I i ^wW-Uwio a 
fruatv [a -mm txiiw I la iralw 






Composition. 



Doctor Montessori maintains that it does. She con- 
ceives these definite relationships which may be stated 
as follows : 

1 . A discovery that words 
are composed of successive 
sounds that are blended 
together. 

2. The building or spell- 
, ing of words. 

The phonetic Reading f Power of working out new 

element in the (Both si- J words, both for pronuncia- 

method con- lent and 1 tion and for the gaining of 

tributes to oral) . [ ideas. 



LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN 107 



Composition 

and 
Reading. 



A discovery that written 
forms can convey interesting 
ideas. 

Habit of correct articula- 
tion, of natural and varied in- 
flections and pleasing voice 
qualities. 



Doctor Montessori's recognition of the interrelation 
between aspects of verbal language is not foreign to 
recent discussions of the teaching of reading, writing 
and composition. Professor Percival Chubb has ex- 
pressed it thus : 

"Our basic conception, be it remembered, is that the process of 
learning to use one's mother tongue to good effect in speaking and 
writing it, and to appreciate and catch inspiration from its master- 
products ought to be regarded as a single organic process, each 
stage of which must be seen in relation to those that precede and 
follow." 1 

There is not identity in all that is involved in the 
treatment of this problem by these two educators. 
Decided differences are found in the approach to, and in 
the emphasis upon, the form and content sides. 

The contributions that writing makes to composition 
have already been referred to. To one who has ob- 
served the children's interest and ease in oral and written 
composition, it seems strange that Doctor Montessori 
should not have given more space to the treatment of this 
topic in her book. From it one sees that conversation 
about "what the children have done the day before, 
the intimate happenings of the family, games, public 

^ The Teaching of English, Chubb, p. 19. The Macmillan Co. 



io8 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




LANGUAGE : ORAL AND WRITTEN I09 

happenings, birthday parties, etc.," ^ is encouraged. In 
telHng these experiences the children would have practice 
in narration, description and explanation, — three 
recognized forms of composition. In addition to this, 
their taste concerning suitable topics would be developed. 
The teacher aims consciously, in tactful ways, to ehm- 
inate tendencies towards the discussion of home affairs 
that should be kept private and other matters that 
are unpleasant or valueless. An experience described ^ 
is evidence that written composition is not ignored in 
practice ; it shows that the children moved into com- 
position spontaneously because the two preparatory 
steps had been taken. They had expressed their ideas 
orally; they had acquired the mechanics of writing. 
It was therefore natural that several of a group rose 
during a free conversation period, "and with expres- 
sions of joy on their faces ran to the blackboard and 
wrote phrases on the order of the following : ' Oh, 
how glad we are that our garden has begun to bloom ! ' " 
This type of activity proved as fascinating as did the 
previous spontaneously acquired ones. The children 
were busy for days writing sentences about their expe- 
riences. Several sentences, on the same experience, were 
forthcoming. Special occasions called for more elabo- 
rate compositions. The letters written at Christmas and 
Easter time, and greetings to visitors, are examples. 

To follow the hne of work which the Montessori 
Method stands for in composition, one would count on 
(i) the preparatory steps having been taken in the 
phonetic and manual phases of the writing process; 

^The Montessori Method, p. 124. '^ Ibid., p. 304. 



no THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

(2) the descriptive, narrative and explanatory elements in 
conversation dealing with children's experiences, and 

(3) the same elements in the written form. 

On the relationships of written composition to reading, 
another aspect of the mastery of the language arts, 
Doctor Montessori places emphasis.^ She maintains that 
it forms the transition between enjoyment of the 
mechanical and the thought-gaining phases of reading. 
In fact, before the child will read for sense, he must 
discover that groups of written words are not merely 
arrangements of letters having sounds and standing 
for things in his environment, but that they convey 
his ideas to some one else, or vice versa} 

Before this discovery is made the child has had 
placed before him cards upon which are written in large, 
clear script some words which have already been pro- 
nounced by the child and which represent objects with 
which he is famihar. Furnishings for a doll's house, 
balls, trees, tin soldiers and railways are typical of 
the objects that are used. Long and short words are 
pronounced with equal ease, as the child already knows 
how to pronounce any word or the sounds that compose it. 
He is at once permitted to "' translate the written word 
into sounds." If these are correctly given, the directress 
says, "Faster." The child repeats them more rapidly, 
but often does not yet comprehend them. "Faster, 
faster," says the directress. "The child reads faster, 
each time repeating the same accumulation of sounds, 
with increasing speed, until the word bursts upon his 
consciousness and he pronounces it."^ This is con- 

^ The Montessori Method, pp. 303-307. ^ Ibid., p. 298. 



language: oral and written hi 

tinned for some time. The exercise is varied by having 
the card carried to, and placed under, the object it names. 
The correct reading of the card entitles the child to the 
use of the toy or object. The toys are soon put aside by 
the children, however, in favor of the reading of many 
cards. 

Now, all the elements that constitute reading for 
thought have been experienced and the child is ready for 
the sentence. The action sentences, so famihar to the 
primary teacher, are introduced. They are placed on 
blackboards and on large cards and smaller slips of paper 
in both the script and printed forms. These are followed 
by the reading of larger units, — -accounts of the actual 
observations and experiences of the children in their 
immediate environment. This material is prepared by 
the teacher upon sheets of paper. Doctor Montessori, 
with others, has found that the average first reading 
books do not meet the requirements of a really develop- 
ing method. When this teacher-made reading material is 
to be supplemented or supplanted by the market-made 
books, is determined by the one in charge. The 
children's spontaneous interest in such books would 
influence this decision. Much of the reading of action 
sentences and of leaflets is silent reading. 

In considering the theory upon which this method 
is based, it may be well to recall the complete process. 

1. Hearing sounds. 

2. Association of sounds with f Sand paper 
Letters. \ letter forms. [ letters. 

;. Making sounds associated 
with letter forms. 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



Words. 



Recalling sounds, selecting 

corresponding letter forms 

from the box. 
Building sounds 

into words. 
Connecting words 

with objects. 
Oral reading of 

individual 

words. 



Boxes of 
movable 
alphabets. 



Word cards and mis- 
cellaneous objects. 

Cards, slips of paper. 



Sentences 

and 
Larger 
Units. 



1. Discovery that 

words convey 
thought. 

2. Reading groups of 

words for 

thought (chiefly 
silently). 



Blackboard, paper 
and pencil. 



Leaflets, books. 



Some of the basic reasons given for the use of this 
method of reading are : 

I. Beginning early is essential. Muscular and tactile 
senses are responsive then and the vocal mechanism 
plastic. Habits of poor articulation, voice quaHty and 
inflection have not been estabhshed. All who visit the 
Montessori schools with some knowledge of the liquid 
ItaHan tongue are charmed with the soft mellow voices 
of the children as well as the musical inflection and 
rhythmic flow of their speech, the articulation, accent 
and enunciation seeming to be almost perfect. This is 
due in part to temperamental and climatic causes, but 
in a larger measure to accurate training. 



language: oral and written 113 

2. The contributions from other and preceding activ- 
ities are utilized. The method leads from design through 
spelling, writing and composition to reading. The 
training of the muscles of the hand, the exercises in 
articulation and enunciation, the discipline of the 
memory, the gaining of mental images, — all are out of 
the way before the child is expected to really read. This 
is probably the explanation of Doctor Montessori's state- 
ment that "we should find the way to teach the child 
how before making him execute a task." ^ 

If one is hberal in the interpretation of the word 
"task," her thinking would seem to be in hne with that 
of Hughes : 

"It may be laid down as a fundamental law that when a child 
or a man is asked to perform any complex operation, he should be 
able to give his direct or primary attention to the highest element, 
or stage, in the complex process. The processes subordinate to 
the highest should be so thoroughly under his control that he can 
perform them automatically, or without conscious effort. When 
a child is expressing thought in writing, for instance, he should 
not be required to think about the forms of the letters. Letter 
formation should have become automatic, or else the child must 
give a portion of his mental effort to the construction of the letters, 
and he will have only a part of his mind left to do his thinking. If 
a man is able to concentrate his mind fully on his subject while 
writing, he cannot be conscious of the fact that there are letters 
or words, or grammatical rules, or laws of style. He thinks, and 
the language is organized, and the visible words formed, without 
direct conscious effort on his part." ^ 

3. Silent reading is to precede, and to receive as much 
attention as oral reading. 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 261. 

^ Teaching to Read, James L. Hughes, p. 4. The A. S. Barnes Co. 



114 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

"Reading aloud implies the exercise of two mechanical forms 
of the language — articulate and graphic — and is, therefore, a 
complex task and one of the most difficult intellectual actions. 
The child, therefore, who begins to read by interpreting thought 
should read mentally." ^ 

This attitude toward the place and amount of silent 
reading is familiar to students of McMurray, Huey, 
Briggs and Coffman, Gesell, and others. These authors 
see in the oral reading, early and excessive, one cause 
of artificial expression and of some cases of stuttering. 

There is no doubt but that so-called expression in the 
early grades is much overdone. 

" The Director of Physical Training in the Boston Public Schools, 
after careftd investigations, tells us that the elementary schools are 
'the breeding ground' of the stuttering habit, and that stuttering 
' is largely due to faulty and misguided instruction in speaking and 
reading.' " ^ 

This completes the discussion of Doctor Montessori's 
Method of teaching the language arts. She consciously 
makes the approach from the form side, expecting a 
mastery of this mechanical phase before attempting to 
solve the thought problem. From that approach, the 
plan is consistent throughout and in use reaches the goal 
sought. This is evident to any one who has visited The 
Children's Houses, or has experimented intelligently with 
the method elsewhere. 

The opposite approach, made from the standpoint 
of motivation, was emphatically brought forward by 
Colonel Parker, some twenty years ago. It has influ- 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 107. 

2 The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, Huey, p. 352. The 
Macmillan Co. 



language: oral and written 115 

enced the views of the teaching of these arts held by 
leading American educators since that time. Books 
written by authors referred to here embody the result- 
ing methods. 

Topics for Discussion 

Give your views on the following : 

1. Artificial expression in reading in relation to 

a. Poor voice quality. 

b. Dependence upon others for interpretation. 

2. Silent and oral reading : their relative values in life 

experience. 

3. The importance of giving early attention to defects 

in speech. 

4. The value as a preparation for written composition 

of 

a. Dramatization in connection with story-telling 

and every day activities. 

b. Free spontaneous conversation. 

c. A wealth of joyous experience. 

5. The relative values of the methods and materials 

used in teaching reading by Doctor Mon- 
tessori in the Casa dei bambini, Rome ; 
and Flora J. Cook, in the Francis W. 
Parker School, Chicago.^ 

^ Course of Study, Francis W. Parker School, Vol. I, No. II, 1913. 
Also Reading in the Primary Grades, Flora J. Cook. 



CHAPTER VI 

NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 

The number instinct is strong in every normal child. 
Long before the school period, even before his use of 
spoken language for his counting one, two, three, the 
child rhythmically touches the objects within his reach, 
saying syllables which indicate a consciousness of the 
fewness or multiphcity of things. He sits for an hour at 
a time shifting the sand in his sand pile from one place 
to another, measuring and counting by pailfuls with the 
greatest satisfaction. He enjoys the process of arrang- 
ing sticks, pebbles and cards into bundles or groups, 
thus playing himself into a kind of number experience, 
which, though vague and crude, forms the basis of his 
later mathematical education. This number instinct, 
so active as to cause the child to observe, compare and 
classify, is turned to such account by Doctor Montessori 
that by the use of suitable stimuli hazy notions of 
number soon begin to grow into definite number facts, 
and the child, through a knowledge of processes and 
units of measure, comprehends with some degree of 
definiteness the objects and activities within his environ- 
ment on their quantitative side. This gives him added 
power to see, to think and to do. 

Montessori would begin her teaching of numeration 
by the use of familiar objects. 

ii6 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT II7 

"A dozen different ways may serve toward this end and daily 
life presents many opportunities ; when the mother says, for in- 
stance, 'There are two buttons missing from your apron,' or 'We 
need three more plates on the table.'" * 

The tower, the broad stair and the long stair offer 
many suggestions for the mother, kindergartner and 
primary teacher. The tower offers opportunity for 
indefinite comparison. The broad stair teaches thick- 
ness. The long stair emphasizes the idea of length, 
and leads definitely to counting and measuring. (See 
cuts, page 72.) The sandpaper and cardboard figures 
give the written forms of the numbers and are much 
used in games and undirected work. From these the 
child moves into the making of his own written forms 
on blackboard and paper. 

The suggestions for the use of these devices grow 
out of the study of the chapter on The Teaching of 
Numeration ; ^ the observation of children's work in the 
schools in Rome ; and some experiments with American 
children. An attempt has been made to carry the work 
beyond that specifically described in the Montessori 
Method without, however, indicating the age at which 
the child should have it. This must be determined 
by the child's interest in, and capacity for, the work, 
and the suitableness of such material for his stage of 
growth. 

"Each teacher may multiply the practical exercises in the 
arithmetical operations, using simple objects which children can 
readily handle and divide." ' 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 326. 

2 Ibid., Chapter XIX. 3 /j/^^ p ^^^^ 



Il8 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

I. Indefinite Comparison. j 

(a) (Type of the early exercises.) Use the tower. 
The teacher says : 

This is a small block (smallest block) . 
This is a large block (largest block) . 

Show me the large block. 
Show me the small block. 

What is this ? (Points to one.) 
What is this ? (Points to the other.) 
Later exercise. 

The teacher says : 
This is a large block. 

This is a larger block. (Shows only 2 blocks.) 
This is the largest block here. (Shows 3 
blocks.) 

Bring the large block. 

Bring the block that is larger. 

Bring the largest block. 

Which block is this ? (Points to largest one.) 
Which block is this ? (Points to large one.) 
Which block is this ? (Puts largest aside and 
with other two present, points to larger one.) 
Leave the child with these blocks. Observe 

what he does with them. 
Teach : Small, smaller, smallest. 

(b) Use the broad stair. 
Teach : Thick, thin — 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 

Thick, thicker, thickest. 
Thin, thinner, thinnest. 

Narrow, wide — 

Narrow, narrower, narrowest. 
Wide, wider, widest, 
(c) Use the long stair. 
Teach : Long, short — 

Long, longer, longest. 
Short, shorter, shortest. 



119 




The Tower and the Long Stair. 

Other comparisons will suggest themselves with the 
groups of materials named in (a) , (b) , (c) . 

The exercises should increase in difficulty. Children 



120 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



as well as adults enjoy overcoming greater and greater 
obstacles ; enjoy testing and measuring their abilities. 
These can grow only as attempts are made upon the 
more difficult. One such variation is suggested ; others 
will come as materials are used by children and teacher. 
The step of "Bring me the . . . block," will at first 
show the blocks near each other; later, they can be 
placed at greater distances; and finally in different 
parts of the room. Here the child cannot glance back 
and forth at the objects but must use the memory image 
as his test in selection. 

The final goal in this work of indefinite comparison 
is reached when each series of blocks can be placed in 
order of gradation without error and with speed. It is 
to be borne in mind that these materials are self-cor- 
rective ; they stimulate the child to judgment of his 
own work ; they lead to self-direction. 

There is a valuable language training in such exercises 
as these. The defining and classif3dng of experiences and 
the acquisition of a vocabulary expressing the same are 
related processes. In this case the child unconsciously 
gains a foundation for the comprehension of the real 
force and meaning of that phase of technical grammar, 
the comparison of adjectives. 



II. Definite Number Work. 

(I) Teaching number content and the "graphic sign." 

For definite number work with the long 

stair, the'child arranges the scattered rods 

in order, according to their length, being 

aided by the correspondence of colors. 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 121 

This is another exercise that is self-correc- 
tive, and the child, verifying his own work, 
takes additional steps toward self-help. 

The first lesson, as Doctor Montessori ^ 
presents it, is to have the child place 
the rods correctly. Having done this, he 
counts the spaces, the red and blue, 
always beginning with the smallest one. 
For example, he touches the rod of one 
decimeter and counts, "One." Then 
touches the next longer and says, "One, 
two," etc., always going back to one B.nd 
starting from the side having the larger 
number of spaces. 

The next step is to name the rods from 
the shortest to the longest, according to 
the spaces, touching the rods at the side 
which make the stair. The spaces in the 
longest rod are counted both from left 
to right, and right to left. Here the prin- 
ciple of verification is again operative. 
The triangular arrangement of the long 
stair makes it possible for the child to 
count to ten on all three sides. He counts 
the stairs going up and down, as in the 
first lesson, thus learning the number of 
spaces in all of the different rods. Count- 
ing from the top to the bottom and 
vice versa on the shortest side of the tri- 
angle, he discovers the number of rods. 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 193. 



122 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



He learns the number of spaces in the 
longest rod by counting the red and blue 
sections on the other side of the triangle. 
The results have been the same as when 
the longest rod was counted — i, 2, 3, 
4, S» 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 

Exercises are now given in which the 
child selects rods of different lengths. 
For example, the directress says, "Show 
me five," and the child points to the rod 
having the five sections. He verifies it 
by placing two rods side by side and 
counting their sections, thus learning to 
combine, or group. The child has by 
this time learned to assign a particular 
name to each one of the spaces in the 
long stair, and now the spaces may be 
called piece number one, piece number 
two, etc., and later, one, two, etc. All the 
rods are treated as was the "5," hence 
the combinations to ten are made. 

When the child has learned to identify 
and caU each rod by name, it is time to 
teach him the figure or symbol of the 
number content, which Doctor Montes- 
sori terms the "graphic sign." This 
involves connecting the famihar audible 
form of the sign with the unfamiliar 
visible form. The manner of presenting 
this is similar to that used for teaching 
the letters, colors, etc. The material 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 



123 




124 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



is the cards with sandpaper figures. For 

example : 

This is seven. 

This is three. 

Give me three. 
Give me seven. 

Which is this ? 
Which is this ? 

As the child is dealing with these 
cards, he is asked to place them against 
the rods of the long stair. This strength- 
ens the ties of association between the 
written and the oral forms of the symbol 
and their content. The two trays, each 
divided into five compartments, and the 
counting sticks are then used with these 
same cards. The first tray has the cards 
with — ^ o, I, 2, 3, 4, — ■ and the second — 
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, — placed in order in the 
sections (Fig. i). The counting sticks 




Fig. I. 



are not in the box. The exercise consists 
in putting them in the compartments in 
the groupings and order designated by the 
figures on the cards placed in the box. 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT .125 

When the child asks how many objects he 
shall put into the zero section, the mean- 
ing of that term is explained. But this 
is not sufficient to impress it upon him. 
Several other devices are used; among 
them are : 
(i) "Come to me zero times." 

(2) "Take zero steps." 

(3) Games may be played with cards upon 

which are the figures o, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 
7, 8, 9. The children take, bring or do 
the number of things which cards they 
draw call for.^ 

(II) The fundamental processes. 
Numbers below ten : 

(A) Counting. 

(B) Addition. 

(i) 



9 


8 


7 


6 


5 


I 


2 


3 


4 


I 


2 


^ 


4 


J 


_9 


8 


^ 


6 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 



Making other rods the same 
length as "10." "What did 
you put with nine to make ten ? 
Tell it with tjie number cards." 
"Show it with these (pebbles, 
cubes, etc.) objects." Teacher 
points to eight and two. 
"What have we here ? Make 
it with the number cards." 

^The Montessori Method, pp. 32g-33o. 



126 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



"With these objects." All the 
other combinations making ten 
maybe treated in the same way. 

(2) "We can do with nine what we did 

with ten," etc. 

8765 1234 

9999 9999 

(3) "What rod would you Hke to use 

to-day?" Child chooses. It 
may be six, five or any of the 
remaining ones. The children 
should be encouraged to show 
many combinations with ob- 
jects other than the rods. 

(4) The preceding combinations may be 

worked out from another 
standpoint, for the sake of 
fixing them in the child's mind, 
by using the rods in the fol- 
lowing manner. 
(a) Adding one to other numbers, 
using the rods, we discover 
these facts : 
23456789 
iiiiiiii 



(6) Adding two : 

12345678 
22222222 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 1 27 

(c) Adding three : 
1234567 
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 

(d) Other combinations may be made 

by adding : 
4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 
(C) Subtraction. 

The work in subtraction 
need not be left until all the 
combinations in addition have 
been worked out. It is not 
planned out in full here, for in 
general it will follow the same 
course as the work in addition. 

Type lesson. "Make as 
many tens as possible." 
"What rods did you put 
together in this one?" 
(Points to nine and one com- 
bination.) "Let us take it 
apart now." "Let us tell 
what we have done. Ten 
less one, nine. Let us tell it 
with these (pebbles, etc.) ob- 
jects. This is the way it 
looks on the board :" lo 
— I 

9 

"Make it with your number 
cards." 



128 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

(Z>) Addition and subtraction. Exercises 
with numbers below ten : 
(i) Teaching + and — signs. Material : 
Sandpaper signs mounted on 
cards to correspond to figure 
cards. Use the three steps of 
Seguin. ''These are to tell us 
when to put together" and when 
to "take apart." "Which 
one do you think says, 'put 
together'?" (Since the plus 
sign is a "putting together" 
of two Hnes, the child will 
probably make correct selec- 
tion. " Then which one is the 
'take apart' one?" "The 
chalk will tell you to do some 
'putting together' and 'tak- 
ing apart' with your rods. 

(2) "To-day, we will use the rods and 

other things. You may tell 
with the number and sign cards 
what I do." 

(3) Other lessons fixing the process and 

extending the mastery of the 
combinations up to ten will 
suggest themselves. 

(4) When ready, the children should 

substitute the making of the 
figures with crayon at board or 
on paper for the use of the 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 1 29 

number and sign (+, — ) cards 
to tell what has been done 
with rods and other objects or 
pictures of them, 
(5) The final step involves the elimina- 
tion of the objects or represen- 
tations of them. The use of 
a problem on board and cards 
at this stage should aim to 
have the child give result as 
quickly as he can without 
naming the numbers that are 
to be added. The automatic 
response to, 2 4 3 7 

+3 +3 -2 -2 
etc., should be 5 ; 7 ; i ; 5 ; 
respectively. It should not 
be the more drawn out form 
of"2 + 3 = 5-" The good ac- 
countant does not waste time 
and energy in saying five 
words where one will do. The 
one-word habit cannot be 
established too early. 

(I) & (II) Continued with numbers above ten. 

(a) Review zero devices. "Place 'ten' and 
'one' (rods) together. This 
makes eleven. We have no 
more figures with which to 
make eleven, so we put the 
card containing 'i' over the 



I30 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



zero (counting frame, Fig. 2), 
and then we have eleven. 
Write eleven on the board." 




4 04 





Fig. 2. — The Counting Frames. 



"Place 'ten' and 'two' to- 
gether. This makes twelve. 
Here is twelve (with the 
number cards). I put the 
card containing '2' over the 
zero. Then we have the 
number twelve. Write 
twelve on the board below 
eleven." 

"Place 'ten' and 'three' 
together. This is thirteen. 
Ten and three make thir- 
teen. Make it in the num- 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT I3I 

ber case. Write it on the 
board," etc. 

The meaning of and the 
graphic sign for fourteen, 
fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, 
eighteen and nineteen, may 
be worked out in the same 
way with the rods. 

The combinations making 
eleven, twelve, thirteen 
and fourteen, fifteen, six- 
teen, seventeen, eighteen, 
may be developed in addi- 
tion and subtraction until 
the child has them up 
to 20. 
(b) Counting. 

(i) By I's to 20 and reverse. 

(2) By 2's to 20 and reverse. Teacher 
takes out every other rod, 
beginning with two and 
places them in order for the 
child. Child names the rods, 
beginning with the smallest, 
— 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. "Count up 
this stair. Count down. 
Count up and down." 
"Notice what blocks have 
been left. Name them." 
(i, 3> 5> 7, 9-) "Count up 
and down as many times as 



132 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

you like." Vary with ob- 
jects. Eliminate objects 
when no longer necessary. 

(3) Other countings. With and with- 

out objects. 

(a) By 3's to 18 and reverse. 

(b) By 4's to 20 and reverse. 

(c) By 5's to 20 and reverse. 

(4) By lo's to 100 and reverse. "Climb 

up the stair (rods) counting 
each step, calling the first 
step 10. Climb down. 
CKmb up and down." 

(5) The use of the counting trays and 

sticks and the counting frame 
and figure cards make it pos- 
sible to teach counting up to 
100. The specific steps in- 
volved in counting by I's, 
2's, lo's, etc., beyond the 
Hmits suggested by (&) un- 
der (I) and (II) will suggest 
themselves to the worker 
with children as the latter 
manifest their needs and 
their readiness. 
(c) Multiplication. 

(i) Type lesson. Table of 2's. Count 
by 2's to 20. Find rods 2, 4, 
6, 8, etc. Hold up rod 2. 
How many times do you see 2 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 133 

in this block? i time. 

1 times 2 = 2. 
Teacher writes 2 

X I 
2 
Bring rod 4. Turn 2 on 4 to find 
how many times you do it. 

2 times 2=4. Teacher 
writes 2 

X 2 
4 
See if you can find a block that will 
contain 2, three times. 3 
times 2 = 6. Teacher writes 
2 

><_3 

6 

Treat each step similarly. 

Use the counting sticks to review, 
and fix process and extend 
the multiplication combina- 
tions. Use the number cards 
and the times sign to have 
child record the results. 
Eventually, have him write 
the results when he works 
with objective material. 
Follow this with the eHmina- 
tion of all objects and the 
fixing of the desired response 
to: 



134 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



2243 
X4 X3 X2 X2 



etc., with 8, 6, 8, 6, respec- 
tively. Then, miscellaneous 
problems for quick and 
accurate response to the 
three signs, +, — , X, should 
be given for testing, review- 
ing and fixing the correct 
association of processes with 
these symbols. 
(d) Division. 

(i) Type lesson. " Divide four by two. 
That means put 2 on four 
and see how many times it 
will go into four. How many 
2's in four ? Here it is on 
the board, 4 -j- 2 = 2." De- 
velop each division fact after 
this fashion and follow the 
general scheme of progress 
suggested in processes al- 
ready discussed. 

(2) Type lesson in fractioning. "We 
find one half of anything by 
cutting it or dividing it into 
two equal parts. Let us find 
one half of two, four, six, 
eight and ten. We will use 
this cord to show where to 
divide. Take rod 'two.' Cut 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT I35 

it into two equal parts with 
the cord. Show one half of 
' two ' by running your finger 
along it. How many is it ? 
This is the way to write it : 
^ of 2 = I." Develop |^ of 4 ; 
|- of 6 ; etc., in a like manner, 
(e) That the long stair offers many and 
varied experiences with num- 
bers is evident. Another as- 
pect not yet referred to is 
that it embodies the units of 
the metric system. 

Our remote ancestors did their counting by the aid of 
the ten fingers. It seems natural to divide numbers into 
groups of tens. By making the longest rod one meter 
and the shortest rod one decimeter, Doctor Montessori 
brings to the child a basis of measurement which is des- 
tined in time to become universal. 

In the metric system, the unit of length is the meter ; 
the unit of capacity, the Hter ; the unit of weight, the 
gram. Each table contains in an unvarying ratio multi- 
ples and decimals of its unit, and hence is simpler to ac- 
quire and apply than the non-metric systems. At present 
there are only a few statements in each table that are in 
common usage. In some schools are to be found the 
rulers, scales, etc., for the measurement of length, weight 
and capacity, according to the metric system. They 
are all needed for frequent use by children when the 
"measuring more exactly" interest is active. Furni- 
ture and people ; pebbles and sand ; water and sand, are 



r 



136 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 137 

some of the things to which may be appHed the appro- 
priate meter, or the gram, or Hter measures. It is only a 
step for the child to construct his own instruments of 
Hnear measure out of paper, for by placing the longest 
rod upon paper, drawing around it and then cutting out, 
he has his own tape Hne or ruler. Folding this into ten 
equal parts he has sections which are decimeters and the 
equivalent in length of the red and blue* sections on the 
longest rod. Again, if he folds the decimeter into ten, 
he has sections which are one centimeter in length, and if 
it were best for a small child to do such fine work, he could 
fold a centimeter into ten sections, and make the length 
of the milHmeter. This experience might suggest to the 
child the dividing of a gram of sand into the smaller and 
smaller groups of tens or into divisions that constitute 
the units of the weight measure. The efforts at measur- 
ing and of making the units of measure would fix the 
nature of the decimal system indehbly in the child's 
mind, both on its multitude and on its magnitude sides. 
Such work should be followed by exercises in which the 
child estimates length, weight and capacity, by looking, 
or by looking and lifting. Having passed the judgment 
that the ''table is two meters away," he should verify 
the same with ruler or rod ; having gauged the weight 
of a "package at three grams," he should place it on 
scales to determine the accuracy of his statement. 

So far, experiences with the metric system have been 
confined to the basis unit and its subdivisions. Others, 
dealing with the multiples of the same, should also be ar- 
ranged for as the child is ready for them, thus complet- 
ing the work with the system. 



138 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

In studying the development of our best methods, 
we find that Pestalozzi gave the first impetus to logical 
elementary number work by recognizing the value of 
perception and the use of objects in training the number 
sense. His pupil, Grube, followed him with the theory 
that all of the combinations of a number should be taught 
a child simultaneously by means of objects. This 
proved to be impracticable, as a clear idea of process 
should go hand-in-hand with figures and number facts. 

Froebel urged that the child should not only see and 
handle objects in connection with numerical ideas, but 
that the process should be consciously applied by the 
handhng of materials creatively, thus harmonizing 
number with his law of inner connection and illustrating 
the fact that while the child works or plays, quite 
unconscious of numerical combination, fundamental 
number truths may be mastered. 

Modern American methods are somewhat influenced 
by the work of these early reformers, although many 
modifications have developed. These have culminated in 
such logical treatises as "Special Method in Number," 
by McMurry; "The Psychology of Number," by Mc- 
Lellan and Dewey ; and for children's use, such books 
as "First Journeys in Numberland," by Stone and 
Harris, and "Primary Arithmetic," by Smith. 

The importance attached to motivation and activity 
in number teaching is suggested by McMurry, who 
says : 

"Dr. Dewey bases the development of the number idea upon 
measurement, and measurement implies activity — the adjust- 
ment of means to an end. The number one is not a fixed thing, 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 139 

but a standard unit with which to measure some larger yet un- 
defined whole. " "This appeal to activity in measuring by means 
of standard units we consider to be a sounder basis for the num- 
ber concept than mere observation as practiced by Pestalozzi." 

Probably the manner of teaching number most fre- 
quently compared with that of Montessori is the Speer 
method. This method is based, in the main, on sound 
principles, and has left a permanent influence upon 
methods of teaching number, though losing its identity 
as a system. Its author considered the fundamental 
thing in arithmetic to be the inducing of judgment of 
relative magnitudes. Because it is the relation of things 
that makes them what they are, he brought these rela- 
tions to the child by repeated acts of comparison. He 
did not believe in building up a whole which the child 
had never seen, but would have the mind grasp the 
whole first, then move to its parts, i.e. a conception of 
four is necessary before developing the number fact 
2+2,4. It was Speer 's idea to place materials within 
the child's reach, allowing him to handle, measure and 
compare before interfering with questions or directions. 
He offers many exercises by which the child gains famil- 
iarity through the senses of touch, and sight, with 
simple geometric solids, planes and lines. 

This idea holds the child to much preliminary work in 
comparing and measuring before giving him number 
facts, and this is a good idea. Possibly its devotees 
carried it to extremes, as the plan with all its details 
seemed to prove too elaborate, holding the child so 
closely to concrete forms that he was unable to think 
processes in the absence of objects. 



I40 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

The Montessori method is quite different from that 
of Speer. She has a smaller variety of solid forms, her 
materials are self-corrective, she makes greater use of 
the sense of touch and she goes quickly from the exer- 
cise in comparison to the teaching of number facts and 
relations. In her system, more undirected work is 
practiced by the children and the lessons are given to 
individuals rather than to groups^ 

Topics for Discussion 

1. What part does observation play in number develop- 

ment ? 

2 . Give incidental work in arithmetic in connection with : 

a. Nature study. 

(i) Weather records. 
(2) Plant life. 

b. Construction Work. 

(i) Measuring. 

(2) Wholing and parting. 

c. Reading. 

(i) Finding pages. 
(2) Finding sections. 

3. How may number facts and processes be made usable 

by much application and practice ? 

4. Discuss the relation of motivation to clear mathe- 

matical reasoning. 

5. Discuss the relation of repetition and drill to ac- 

curacy and speed in arithmetical work. 

6. What relation is there between number development 

and 



NUMBER DEVELOPMENT 141 

a. Neatness of arrangement. 

b. Accuracy of expression. 

c. Clearness of thought. 

Make a comparative outline of the methods and 
materials used in teaching arithmetic in 

a. The Casa dei Bambini, Rome. 

b. The Speyer School, New York. 

(See the Speyer School Curriculum, 1913.) 



CHAPTER VII 

A 

MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE AND PREPARATORY 
VALUES — CLAY, BLOCKS, CRAYONS, WATER COLOR 

The child's hand as a means for expressing his inner 
life has been the subject of many studies, and the data 
given to us by Hall, Preyer and other psychologists 
show the significance of the activities of this small 
dimpled member of the child's body which tells the drift 
of his interests, the scope of his initiative and the power 
of his inventive impulses. These are also expressed 
through speech and through games and plays. But 
the things done with the hand have a peculiar interest 
to one who has the insight to catch their hidden 
meaning. 

It may be that the squirrel molded in clay is many 
times too large for the hollow log which he is supposed 
to enter ; that the house drawn on the blackboard not 
only shows doors and windows, but interior as well, 
imagination causing the wall to be accommodatingly 
transparent; that the landscape produced by washes 
with brush and paint reveals impossible colorings in 
grass and sky: each crude effort has wrapped up in 
it, nevertheless, a fascinating story of a child's vague 
wonderings, tastes and ideas. At the beginning the 
primary value of all activities of the hand is self-expres- 
sion ; a secondary one is their preparatory aspect. 

142 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES 1 43 

Technique, which is only a means to an end, is gradually 
acquired through experience and training.^ 

It is most important that by the means of such 
mediums as clay, sand and crayon the child shall clarify 
his ideas by putting them into visible form, acquire the 
habit of expressing thoughts freely with different 
mediums, associate hand and eye through motor activity, 
and tell the uppermost thoughts of the moment with 
absolute freedom and satisfaction. 

"The external organ (hand) has been accordingly more em- 
ployed to utter and set forth the movement of the internal organ 
(mind) than any other outward part of the body." ^ 

The activities of the hand of the individual run parallel 
with those of the race. Just as the child by means of 
the "external organ (hand)" is striving to reveal the 
content, and aid in the evolution of the "inner organ 
(mind)" so the hands of the race have been revealing 
the needs, aspirations and achievements of humanity 
during the various stages of civilization. Man's devel- 
opment may be traced by the products of his handicraft 
all along the line of his evolution. His physical, mental 
and moral powers may be measured in any period by 
his courage, skill, and taste in grappling with his envi- 
ronment and making it over to satisfy his physical needs, 
and express his inner life. All discovery, inventions 
and progress in science and art are the direct product of 
the mind working through the hand. 

The first plastic medium used by primitive man for 

1 Educational Problems, Hall, Chapter XX. 

2 Psychology of the Play Gifts, Snider. Sigma Publishing Co. 




A Roman Patriot, Age Foue., making a Picttjre Story of the 
War with Turkey, 

The soldier, torpedo boat, and warship are in evidence. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES I45 

the concrete expression of thought was clay. By the 
use of this material, which responds to every light 
touch of the fingers, children play themselves through 
experiences which train the mind to think and the hand 
to express. With both hands working together, they 
cultivate unconsciously some appreciation of form, size 
and contour. Sight and touch aid each other in the 
process of representing form in its three dimensions 
and in preparing for the more abstract art of drawing. 
They are gaining in observation, motor control and 
inventiveness, while they gratify that impulse so strong 
in children, to attack and change all that will yield to 
their touch. '^ 

"Whatever things are plastic to his hand, those things he must 
remodel into shapes of his own, and the result of the remodeUng, 
however useless it may be, gives him more pleasure than the origi- 
nal thing. The mania of young children for breaking and puUing 
apart whatever is given them, is more often the expression of a 
rudimentary constructive impulse than of a destructive one." ^ 

The child's first use of all materials seems capricious. 
He loves to play with them ; to change and modify them. 
He often takes an object apart the moment it is com- 
pleted. He wants results to follow quickly on the heels 
of effort. Later, interest in the result predominates, 
and the activity is merely the means of producing it. 
Improvement of technique is striven for in order that 
the product may fulfill the worker's standards of work- 
manship. 

Ernest Beckwith Kent names the four stages that 

^ Modeling in the Primary School, Sargent. 

^ Principles of Psychology, James, Vol. II, p. 426. Henry Holt and Co. 



146 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

the child passes through in the development of con- 
structive motive, (i) instinctive, (2) imitational, (3) play- 
utility, (4) adult-utility. 

The instinctive stage with the young child is one of 
pure manipulation when pleasure comes from being the 
cause of change. Every mother has seen children sift 
and pile sand, pat and roll clay, scribble with crayon 
and revel in the use of all materials that invite these 
responses. 

"Along with this wholly sensational pleasure of pure manipu- 
lation there is probably the beginning of an intellectual pleasure, 
and from this side the activity might be called experimentation as 
well as manipulation — the child wants to see what will happen." ^ 

Then follows the time when attempts are made to 
imitate the activities of grown-ups. Now in the course 
of instinctive activity, something with a resemblance to 
a familiar object or process catches the child's eye and 
he says, "Do you want to buy some sugar?" (sand); 
"I'm making pies" (clay, sand, mud); "Here's a 
man" (drawing). With this accidentally discovered 
clew to a possibility of the material, he now makes many 
objects or carries out processes familiar to him. 

Kent refers to the "mud pie" as the most typical 
representation of the transition to the imitation stage. 

"Here is clearly a double pleasure in manipulation and imita- 
tion. Heretofore he has been contented to 'heap and dig away,' 
his sand, but now he adds to the pleasure of modifying a plastic 
material, that of reproducing a household occupation. The pie 
is clearly not an end in itself. Building with blocks is perhaps 

1 The Constructive Interests of Children, Kent, p. 11. Teachers 
College, Columbia University. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES 



147 



the line of work that depends most exclusively upon the imitation 
motive — manipulation pleasure would seem small compared 
with that obtained from plastic materials, and the product is 
still nothing." ^ 

The play product is typified by the making of clay 
dishes which serve day after day in housekeeping play, 
or by marbles that can be rolled. The adult-utility 




After a Playtime with Clay. 

one, by the making and firing of a vase or flowerpot 
that will serve the purpose of holding cut flowers or a 
plant. 

These periods of growth cannot be measured entirely 
by years, nor does one cease absolutely as another comes. 

1 The Constructive Interests of Children, Kent, p. 12. 



148 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Recourse must be made to previous levels for new skills, 
new possibilities of materials, new ideas to be expressed. 
But there comes a time when play products cease to 
satisfy, and the child, entering the third stage in this 
development, craves more of real results for all his 
efforts. Thus he looks toward that fourth and final 
phase of man's work when process is almost lost sight 
of in the eagerness for product. The attitude in this 
stage should still be, and actually is, where working 
conditions are right, just as joyous as in previous stages. 

Watching the activities of the children in a Mon- 
tessori school, one is impressed with the belief that here 
the beginning stages of the constructive motive are well 
guarded and reverenced by thoughtful observers of 
child life. It is this fact which warrants this discussion, 
for Doctor Montessori brings no new contribution in 
connection with the use of clay as educative material. 
As far as the writer observed, the possibilities of clay 
had not been as fully developed in the Children's Houses 
as they have been in American kindergartens and primary 
schools. 

The chapter dealing with clay is brief. The follow- 
ing quotations give some indication of its spirit and 
content : 

"In consideration, however, of the system of liberty which I 
proposed, I did not like to make the children copy anything, and, 
in giving them clay to fashion in their own manner, I did not 
direct the children to produce useful things." ^ 

"Many little ones model the objects which they have seen at 
home, especially kitchen furniture, water jugs, pots, and pans. 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 162. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES I49 

Sometimes, we are shown a simple cradle containing a baby brother 
or sister. At first it is necessary to place written descriptions 
upon these objects, as it is necessary to do with the free design. 
Later on, however, the models are easily recognizable, and the 
children learn to reproduce the geometric solids." ' 

Doctor Montessori refers to "The School of Educative 
Art" where civic pride and artistic skill are acquired 
by the methods of Professor Randone, its founder. 
These have been adopted to some extent in the Chil- 
dren's Houses. For example, the vase form much used 
by Randone is accepted as a suitable form for modeling 
because of its "adaptability to every modification of 
form and its susceptibility to .the most diverse orna- 
mentation." 

" After two or three lessons the little pupils are already enthu- 
siastic about the construction of vases, and they preserve very 
carefully their own products, in which they take pride. With their 
plastic art they then model little objects, eggs or fruits, with which 
they themselves fill the vases. One of the first undertakings is 
the simple vase of red clay filled with eggs of white clay ; then 
comes the modeling of the vase with one or more spouts, of the 
narrow-mouthed vase, of the vase with a handle, of that with two 
or three handles, of the tripod, of the amphora." ^ 

" For children of the age of five or six, the work of the potter's 
wheel begins." ^ 

She has also adapted from "The School of Educative 
Art" the idea of making bricks which are afterward fired 
and built by the children's hands into miniature walls. 

"But what most delights the children is the work of building 
a wall with little bricks, and seeing a little house, the fruit of their 

1 The Montessori Method, p. 242. ^ Ibid., p. 166. 



ISO THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

own hands, rise in the vicinity of the ground in which are growing 
plants, also cultivated by them. Thus the age of childhood 
epitomizes the principal primitive labors of humanity, when the 
human race, changing from the nomadic to the stable condition, 
demanded of the earth its fruit, built itself shelter, and devised 
vases to cook the foods yielded by the fertile earth." ^ 

Doctor Montessori not only provides in her schools 
such suitable stimuli for constructive activity as clay 
and blocks — but she grants that other necessary 
condition for self-expression — personal liberty. Here 
the instinctive and imitative periods are permitted to 
have their full measure of time. A child may pile up 
and tear down his blocks or other materials (with 
the exception of didactic apparatus) indefinitely with- 
out interruption. Playing with all things that attract 
him in his environment, he gets from them what he 
may. As the quality of what he has learned to do 
by himself no longer satisfies him because his ideas of 
form and color are now more accurate and clear, and 
his ideals of workmanship are higher, he is eager for 
guidance, for definite instruction from an older person, 
possibly for the use of tools that supplement the work 
of his hands. It is on some such basis as this that the 
potter's wheel would have a place in the child's work in 
clay. To the teacher belongs the task of determining 
when the help of direction or implement is sufficiently 
felt as a need by the child to warrant its presentation. 
There are those who would question that the child 
would feel the need of the potter's wheel or that he would 
possess, at five or six years, the capacity for the coordi- 

1 The Montessori Method, p. i66. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES 151 

nation necessary to its use. Doctor Montessori's reply 
to this criticism of the use of the wheel would probably 
be that there are some things which must be brought to 
the child earlier than he manifests the need for them, 
to the end that he may at a later time be freer because 
he is in control of the mechanisms for expression of ideas 
or construction of objects in manual labor. 

Probably the same question will be raised by most 
people when typewriters are advocated for the earlier 
grades. People are slow to move away from old ideas 
and habits. " Because typewriters have always been 
used by people of high school age and above, therefore 
they cannot be used by young children," is their type 
of thought. Experiments like that tried with Winifred 
Stoner and other precocious children who began at three 
or four to play with the typewriter and who at seven 
or eight could write letters upon it, are either disbelieved 
or ridiculed by the average parent or teacher. Thus in 
all times have innovations been treated by the many. 
Only the few have been willing to test out by further 
experimentation the merit of the suggested new departure. 

With the general principles that make it possible for 
each child to do the thing he wishes to do in the way 
that he wishes to do it, and that make the directress, 
in the spirit of the scientist, value each period of devel- 
opment, caring less for immediate products and more 
for growth in a broad sense, results may be attainable 
in the education of children that up to the present few 
people have dared to dream of and to experiment for. 
When a normal child's personality is set free, when he is 
encouraged to enjoy his environment without restraints 



r 



152 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES 1 53 

save those imposed by good breeding, the rights of others 
and respect for property, he is sure to grow by leaps and 
bounds, providing that the environment is wholesome. 
This condition Doctor Montessori has striven to provide. 
Her equipment does not contain all things ideal, nor do 
her plans include all the desirable features of the best 
American schools. What she claims and what she 
really seems to be accomplishing is in a measure stated 
in the following paragraphs : 

"The children work by themselves, and, in doing so, make a 
conquest of active discipline and independence in all the acts of 
daily life, just as through daily conquests they progress in intel- 
lectual development. Directed by an intelligent teacher, who 
watches over their physical development as well as over their 
intellectual and moral progress, children are able with our methods 
to arrive at a splendid physical development, and, in addition to 
this, there unfolds within them, in all its perfection, the soul, 
which distinguishes the human being." ^ 

"In our efforts with the child, external acts are the means which 
stimulate internal development, and they again appear as its 
manifestation, the two elements being inextricably intertwined. 
Work develops the chUd spiritually ; but the child with a fuller 
spiritual development works better, and his improved work de- 
lights him, — hence he continues to develop spiritually." ^ 

Some students of the Montessori method have ques- 
tioned her statement that clay "serves for the study of 
the psychic individuaHty of the child in his spontaneous 
manifestations, but not for his education." If one reads 
the chapter on "Manual Labor" and the discussion of 
free plastic work in the chapter on "Intellectual Educa- 
tion," it will be plainly seen that Doctor Montessori 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 375. ^Ibid., p. 353. 



154 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

gives clay its place as a valuable stimulus in the self- 
making process of the child. All handwork, all expres- 
sion, reveals the child not only to his teacher but to 
himself. Upon this revelation the teacher bases the 
next conditioning of the child in order that he may be 
stimulated to different and higher tasks ; the child 
finding the Hmits of his present powers of seeing, know- 
ing and executing, looks more closely and tries again : 
the result is a more fully expressed idea and a finer tech- 
nique of performance. 

It is a great thing for a teacher to be able to study 
a child until she knows its needs, its temperament, 
stage of development, social environment and physical 
strength; for her to place then within its reach such 
stimuli as shall meet these conditions ; and with sym- 
pathy, patience and the simplest and best technique of 
instruction to permit the child to carry on a process of 
self-education. Under such conditions, we can scarcely 
overestimate the value of clay as a stimulus. 

1. It serves 

a. The child, as a means of self-expression re- 

vealing him to himself. 

b. The teacher, as a means of studying the child. 

2. It gratifies the natural impulse to investigate and 

change materials. 

3. Results are obtained quickly, so that fleeting in- 

terests are expressed. 

4. Clear mental images are developed, the child 

seeing in his lump of clay the possibility of 
a finished product. 

5. Natural forms are presented before type forms. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES 1 55 

6. Perception of the third dimensions is a preparation 

for drawing. 

7. The tactible, visual and motor memories are all 

brought into activity. 

8. Perception of form, size and contour is encouraged. 

9. Skill of hand and enjoyment of creative effort 

result. 

10. Accuracy, observation, concentration, patience 
and perseverance are stimulated. 

Turning to another subject, drawing, one finds the 
value of preparation for another activity and the educa- 
tive value of self-expression embodied in Doctor Mon- 
tessori's theory and practice. Through the exercises in 
design the child learns to write before writing. There 
is also something to be said in favor of such exercises in 
connection with their relation to drawing, as by means of 
these designs the child's passion for scribbling is directed 
into right channels. He is unconsciously mastering 
the art of holding and guiding the medium of drawing — 
whether it be chalk, marking pencil or charcoal — and 
the resulting muscular control and judgment in pro- 
portion, color discrimination and arrangement aid in 
making drawing an easier mode of expression. 

Every child revels in the joys of picture making long 
before he goes to school. His crude drawings represent 
ideas rather than objects as they really appear. "Young 
children draw what they know about objects rather than 
what their eyes see at any given moment." ^ It took 
the human race a long time to discover the principles 
of perspective and of light and shade. A study of the 

^ Fine and Industrial Arts in Elementary Schools, Sargent. 



156 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Madonnas will reveal the gradual and comparatively re- 
cent appreciation of what is seen and of how to express 
it. The child must be given full opportunity to use his 
own symbols. 

The time will come when he reahzes that his drawing 
does not represent the object as he sees it. The result- 
ing dissatisfaction gives occasion for suggestions in- 
volving principles of perspective and light and shade. 
These will make it possible for him to criticise his own 
work and to give better expression to his thought. This 
time does not usually arrive before the sixth year. 
There are suggestions of it appearing in first grades, how- 
ever, as the following will illustrate. The children's 
first pose work had been that of a classmate standing 
before the class. The problem was to tell with paints 
that a girl with .... dress, .... ribbons and .... 
hair stood with her back to the class. On another day, 
the model was seated on a chair. It happened that her 
skirt fell over the side of the chair toward the class. 
Out of a class of twenty, nineteen showed the frame- 
work of the chair through the dress ; the twentieth 
child did not. Her picture, when placed with others 
upon the bulletin board, became the point of departure 
to a discussion of telling what is seen rather than what 
is actually present. 

So some child, too, hits upon the fact that a small 
tree, or house, or person, placed higher up on his paper 
looks Hke a tree, or a house, or a person in the distance. 
Out of this grows the principle that things near at hand 
look larger than things of the same size far away. The 
teacher must know what constitutes acceptable early 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSrVE VALUES 1 57 

drawings. She must recognize the arrival of the time 
when the child is finding his way to the higher level and 
must be ready to appreciate and guide his work gradu- 
ally toward correct representation of what he as an in- 
dividual sees from his particular point of observation. 
The gradual mastery of these principles underlies the 
courses of study in drawing for the grades before the 
high school. The child should not be hurried into them 
by copying the perspective drawings of older people. 

The mechanical skill acquired from the exercises in 
design in the use of metal insets, makes it easy for the 
child to draw quite accurately a straight, slanting or 
curved line, or to sweep his brush across the paper with 
freedom and definite purpose. Doctor Montessori also 
permits much "free" drawing, hence there is the possi- 
bility of reenforcement of each kind by the other. 

Most American teachers of art, swinging away from 
the copying tendency, insist that drawing for Httle 
children (to be educational) must be entirely free hand ; 
that in mass work there shall be no outhne to limit the 
pencil stroke. Some, however, advise outlines for teach- 
ing color effects and for beginning ideas in proportion 
and balance, believing that without bounds or limita- 
tions the child can at first produce only confused blotches, 
mental images being too hazy for definite expression. 
Doctor Montessori allows children to fill in with pencil 
or brush outHnes of birds, flowers, butterflies and trees, 
as well as conventional borders. This not only trains 
in mechanical skill, but stimulates study of color that 
is true to life. Th^ child observes colors in these natural 
objects and then reproduces them from memory. 



iS8 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



"The fact that the child must remember the color of the objects 
represented in the design encourages him to observe those things 
which are about him. And then, too, he wishes to be able to fill 

in more difl&cult designs. 
Only those children who 
know how to keep the color 
within the outline and to re- 
produce the right colors may- 
proceed to the more ambi- 
tious work. These designs 
are very easy, and often very 
effective, sometimes display- 
ing real artistic work." ^ 

Such work is balanced 
by drawing in which chil- 
dren express their own 
conceptions of form and 
their individual power 
to indicate the same. 
This prevents their be- 
coming dependent upon 
outlines. According to 
Doctor Montessori, their design work does for the color 
sense what free-hand drawing does for form. The 
child has a passion for color, its appeal being stronger 
than that of form. Just as, regardless of perspective, 
he draws striking objects, making them stand out larger 
and quite out of proportion to other (to him) less im- 
portant ones, so the bit of brilliant color appeals to him 
and is given first place in his picture. 

Gathering up these points with reference to drawing. 




Coloring from Outline. 



1 The Montessori Method, p. 244. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES 1 59 

we have the following ideas for our consideration and 
discussion : 

1. Place development before result. 

2. Preserve children's work as a record of growth. 

3. Make use of sense training as a means of deUneating 
form. Sight alone cannot tell of form, there must also 
be touch. 

4. Less instructions and more free childish imaginative 
sweep should be given during the precious time of dreams 
and fancies. 

5. A child would rather draw his own mental images 
than another's. 

6. Since the child would rather draw what he knows 
about an object than what he sees of it at any one time, 
he should be allowed to do so, but when he begins to 
question or to manifest dissatisfaction with his own 
power to tell what he sees, attention should be called to 
appearance rather than facts. 

7. Mediums are most desirable which call into play 
the larger muscles of the hand and arm ; thus strain and 
tension are avoided. 

8. Long-continued application does no harm if in- 
terest and enjoyment in the work is keen, but the 
moment real interest ceases, drudgery is the result. 

9. A child may look and not see. Scientific observa- 
tion of children helps us to know their needs. 

10. There is a delightful confidence and joy in just 
drawing when imagination suppHes deficiencies. Do 
not destroy this by insistence upon mechanical accuracy. 

11. The child likes strong contrasts at first. Do not 
force refined color upon him. 



l6o THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

12. Drawing should connect itself with Hfe, and its 
influence should gradually aid in the development of 
self-control, concentration, appreciation of beauty, in- 
dependence, and a critical attitude. 

13. The unconscious imitation of other children and 
adults is necessary for a child's development, but where 
that imitation becomes conscious it tends to weaken 
rather than strengthen the personaHty. 

14. All designs should lead to good arrangement and 
ideas of rhythm in color and form. 

Like American educators. Doctor Montessori does not 
beUeve in relying solely upon the child's own art pro- 
duction for the development of his aesthetic nature. 
She would therefore surround the school child with the 
best that nature and art can provide. Her plans for her 
Children's Houses were carefully worked out along this 
ideal because she beHeves strongly in the influence of 
environment, especially upon the little child, when powers 
of resistance are limited. 

" The environment acts more strongly upon the individual life 
the less fixed and strong this individual life may be." ^ 

That art has another mission to perform besides that 
of cultivating a taste for the beautiful in color, Hne, 
composition and form is shown in another quotation : 

"Above the blackboards are hung attractive pictures, chosen 
carefully, representing simple scenes in which children would 
naturally be interested. Among the pictures in our 'Children's 
Houses' in Rome we have hung a copy of Raphael's 'Madonna 
della Seggiola,' and this picture we have chosen as the emblem 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 105. 



MEDIUMS OF SELF-EXPRESSIVE VALUES l6l 

of the ' Children's Houses.' For indeed, these ' Children's Houses ' 
represent not only social progress, but universal human progress, 
and are closely related to the elevation of the idea of motherhood, 
to the progress of woman and to the protection of her offspring. 
In this beautiful conception, Raphael has not only shown us the 
Madonna as a Divine Mother holding in her arms the babe who is 
greater than she, but by the side of this symbol of all motherhood, 
he has placed the figure of St. John, who represents humanity. 
So in Raphael's picture we see humanity rendering homage to 
maternity, — maternity, the sublime fact in the definite triumph 
of humanity. In addition to this beautiful symbolism, the picture 
has a value as being one of the greatest works of art of Italy's 
greatest artist." ^ 

A great picture, like a great building, or statue, or like 
great music, may and does give refined satisfying pleasure 
through the senses, but it must go a step further and 
interpret life — hfe that is nature's and life that is 
man's.^ 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 82. 

^The Principles of Art Education, Miinsterberg, pp. 112-113. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION — THE HOME 

We are indebted to no less a man than John Fiske 
for an essay on "The Meaning of Infancy." In it are 
reviewed the facts of the paralleKsms between the longer 
periods of babyhood and the higher places in the scale 
of animal Hfe. The simpler forms of animals come into 
the world so fully developed that they manage for them- 
selves from the beginning. The more complex forms, 
such as nestHng, puppy, kitten and lamb, experience 
a period of helplessness before becoming independent 
creatures of their kind. With amoeba, jellyfish, snail, 
turtle, larvae and the Hke, there is no parental responsi- 
bihty, for the relationship of the adult to the young is 
severed at the time of depositing the eggs or of giving 
birth to the new generation. These young creatures 
are smaller than they will become ; a function or two 
may develop as maturity approaches, but the equip- 
ment for self-preservation through warding off enemies, 
and through securing the necessities for existence is 
practically in complete working order at birth. 

The essence of babyhood, then, is not merely smallness 
of structure, but that incompleteness of functioning 
which demands from an adult the care that preserves 
life. In the mammalia, this care takes the form of feed- 
ing the young from the body of the mother, of sheltering 

162 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 63 

it from weather and attack, of stimulating it into activity 
that works toward independent action. 

This condition of dependence upon the adult is by far 
greatest in human beings, reaching its culmination among 
civihzed people where the young are theoretically (and 
often actually) not independent until a college course 
has been completed, though the maladjustments of the 
social and economic order do force many children out 
into the realm of self-maintenance before they can be 
considered physically, mentally or morally matured. 

Infancy has had its part in creating and developing 
the home. In the long ago the mother had to stay with 
her babe. In time, the father stayed too, in order to 
protect the child and mother. The helplessness of the 
infant, the association in ministering to it, awoke affec- 
tion. And thus the foundations of family life and of 
morality were laid. 

In time, through organization, the demands upon men 
were lessened. They saved time and energy by com- 
bining against common enemies, by capturing or eradicat- 
ing them. The leisure gained from hunting and fighting 
was spent about the home. Gradually tasks which 
the mother had worked at exclusively became the father's, 
and her labor became more and more confined to the 
limits of a small outdoor space, finally within the hmits 
of "four walls and a ceihng." A German emperor is 
credited with the statement that a woman's interest 
should be confined to the "Three K's, " which translated 
into EngHsh constitute the "Three C's, " — children, 
church and cooking. 

There is a famihar sound to the expression, "Woman's 



164 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

place is the home." And how true it is, if we bear in 
mind that the home is subject to the same law of growth 
to which every institution, to which every plant and 
animal, to which the world itself has been and is subject. 
Out of no house in a far, far distant time came a house ; 
out of that staying together in almost anything which 
nature provided in the form of a cave, came crude hand- 
made dwelHngs; and out of these, came finally our 
modern homes of simple or more pretentious convenience 
and beauty. 

A similar transformation has gone on within the house, 
not only with reference to material things, but also with 
reference to the intangible things — relationships be- 
tween husband and wife, parents and children, sisters 
and brothers, host and guest. It is the evolutionary 
nature of the house and the home which most people 
ignore when they reiterate that "Woman's place is the 
home," and give to it the Hmits already suggested. 

It verges on the trite to say that woman is, more and 
more, going out into the world's activities. She finds 
her work in the shop where clothes are made, bread 
is baked, fruits, vegetables and meats are canned. She 
finds it in the dairy where milk is bottled and butter 
and cheese are made, in the cold storage houses where 
the food stuffs are held, and in stores where the necessities 
for the Hfe of her family are being sold. She finds it in 
care given to the source of the water supply, the dis- 
posal of garbage, the cleansing of streets, the considera- 
tion of health ordinances. She finds it in the church and 
schoolhouse where her children are taught, in the moving 
picture show and in the dance hall, where her children 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 65 

are entertained (though not always for their welfare). 
She finds it in the council, in the board of education, and, 
in some states, in the legislature. Woman's sphere is 
the home, but the home of to-day has had its walls ex- 
panded by a new order of industrial and commercial 
life almost to the uttermost boundaries of the earth. 
These newer and bigger responsibilities of the home call 
for strong, enlightened women, women equal to bear the 
growing pains involved in thinking, and the struggle 
involved in adjustment.^ 

"The house, thus considered, tends to assume in its evolution 
a significance more exalted than even the English word "home" 
expresses. It does not consist of walls alone, though these walls 
be the pure and shining guardians of that intimacy which is the 
sacred symbol of the family. The home shall become more than 
this. It lives ! It has a soul. It may be said to embrace its 
inmates with the tender, consoling arms of woman. It is the 
giver of moral life, of blessings ; it cares for, it educates and feeds, 
the little ones. Within it, the tired workman shall find rest and 
newness of life. He shaU find there the intimate life of the family, 
and its happiness. 

" The new woman, like the butterfly come forth from the chrysa- 
lis, shall be liberated from all those attributes which once made her 
desirable to man only as the source of the material blessings of 
existence. She shall be, like man, an individual, a free human 
being, a social worker ; and, like man, she shall seek blessing and 
repose within the house, the house which has been reformed and 
communized." ^ 

No old order is ever restored, hence we must face some 
questions rising out of the new. Several states have 
recently declared by the passage of "Mother's Pension 

^ Newer Ideals of Peace, Addams, Chapters VI, VII. 
2 The Montessori Method, pp. 68-69. 



i66 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



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THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 67 

Laws" that the value of the woman as a mother in her 
home is greater to her children and to the state eventu- 
ally, than is her value as a laundress, a seamstress, or 
clerk, by means of which she earns the price of food, 
clothing and shelter to keep her family physically 
alive. 

Other ways of meeting the necessity of the mother's 
entire support of the family have resulted in the day 
nursery, the infant school, the kindergarten, the settle- 
ment and, most recently, the Children's House. Of this 
Doctor Montessori says : 

"We can no longer say that the convenience of leaving her 
children takes away from the mother a natural social duty of first 
importance ; namely, that of caring for and educating her tender 
offspring. No, for to-day the social and economic evolution calls 
the working woman to take her place among wage earners, and 
takes away from her by force those duties which would be most 
dear to her ! The mother must, in any event, leave her child, and 
often with the pain of knowing him to be abandoned. The ad- 
vantages furnished by such institutions are not limited to the la- 
boring classes, but extend also to the general middle-class, many 
of whom work with the brain. Teachers, professors, often obliged 
to give private lessons after school hours, frequently leave their 
children to the care of some rough and ignorant maid-of-all-work. 
Indeed, the first announcement of the 'Children's House' was 
followed by a deluge of letters from persons of the better class 
demanding that these helpful reforms be extended to their dwell- 
ings." ' 

The present outlook would indicate that society will 
do much during this generation to promote both the 
home and these outside agencies. Society now main- 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 66. 



1 68 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

tains that the home must not only be kept intact, but 
must be improved by requiring of prospective home- 
makers definite physical, intellectual and social quah- 
fications. Marriage laws are gradually attacking the 
problem. Courses in domestic economy and other 
subjects are indirectly helping in its solution. Plans 
for continuation schools that shall educate for mother- 
hood and fatherhood are being discussed. 

All this points to the time when it will be counted a 
disgrace that many children die annually of preventable 
causes because of the ignorance of individuals and com- 
munities ; that so many who Hve cannot measure up 
to the standards of the Baby Health Contests. It will 
also be counted a disgrace that dispositions are em- 
bittered, that there are established habits of thought and 
feeHng which are selfish, morbid, and in other ways 
antisocial and immoral. It will be counted quite as 
much a disgrace that children grow up never knowing 
and never fulfilling the possibihties of the alertness, 
the richness, the service that their individual mental 
endowments make possible but that educational effdrts 
pass over.^ 

Old as are the relationships of parents to child, in the 
matters of physical preservation, of intellectual super- 
vision and moral guidance, some are slow to recognize 
the importance of conscious, intelligent child study. 
It is as though the vast majority of people confuse the 
facts of once having been children, of seeing many 
children, and of being the physical parents of children 
with the knowledge that grows out of special preparation 

1 The Education of the Child, Key. The Boy Problem, Forbush. 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 69 




lyo 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



I, Meager in material 
environment, 



for that most difficult of difficult tasks — the rearing of 

children.^ 

There are many kinds of homes. They can all be 

grouped within the possible combinations expressed and 

implied below. 

and also in intellectual and 

social life, 
but comfortable in intellec- 
tual and social life, 
but rich in intellectual and 

social life, 
but poor in intellectual and 

social advantages, 
and well-to-do in intellectual 

and social advantages, 
and rich in intellectual and 

social advantages, 
but poor in intellectual and 

social stimuli, 
and well-to-do in intellectual 

and social stimuli, 
and rich in intellectual and 

social stimuli. 



2 . Comfortable in ma- 
terial environment, 



3. Wealthy in ma- 
terial environment, 



c. 



h. 



c. 



a. 



b. 



Every one can think of cases from real lifcgpr from life 
portrayed in books or on the stage, that illustrate these 
types. 

(i. a.) The child that is brought to court and placed 
under the jurisdiction of others besides his parents be- 
cause the parents have shown themselves unable or in- 
capable of caring for him properly. 

1 The School in the Home, Berle. 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 171 

(i. b, c.) Many a boy who has attained eminence 
came from this kind of home. 

(2. b.) Probably most of the people who read this 
come from homes of this type. 

(2. c. ) The so-called precocious children ^ are fre- 
quently found in such homes. 

(3. a.) "The Poor Little Rich Girl" had a father 
who was busy and successful making money ; a mother 
absorbed with society ; a maid and governess, who Hke- 
wise were busy with affairs of their own ; and a corps of 
special teachers for dancing, music, French, etc., whose 
interests were in the remuneration received for efforts 
supposedly made. Only the physician who was with 
her at birth knew when he met her again on her eighth 
birthday how she had been starved. 

(3. c.) "The Second Generation" portrays the father 
who has the intelligence to see, and the courage to pre- 
vent his material wealth from causing the degeneracy of 
his son and daughter. 

One could refer to those whose names are household 
words because of the fine activities associated with them. 
Unfortunately, the daily press brings also the names 
which stand for the worst types under this grouping. 

While Doctor Montessori's book is being principally 
considered in relation to school ideals and methods, one 
who reads her Inaugural Address and her chapter on 
" Discipline " ^ is prone to wonder if her greater service 
is not after all rendered to parents in helping them to 
view child life as a whole — to see from what it should 

^ Precocious Children. Pedagogical Seminary, December, 191 2. 
^ The Montessori Method, Chapters III, V. 



172 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

spring and how it should be conditioned in order that its 
contribution to the human race may be a positive one. 
Thoughtfully reading this book one will see that the 
days of preparation for the advent of a new member of 
the family should not be confined to the making of an 
elaborate layette; some time should be given to know- 
ing what a young baby's physical needs will be, what 
desirable habits can and should be fostered early, what 
intellectual hungers will first be manifested, and how all 
of these may be met for the health and happiness of 
the child. And as the weeks pass into months and the 
months into years, there should be the continuance of 
thoughtful preparation that will insure bodily, mental 
and social well-being. 

Hygienic and sanitary surroundings, a simple whole- 
some diet, plenty of sleep at regular hours, abundance of 
fresh air at night, out-of-door activities by day, all have 
their part to play in making the child physically sound. 
It probably takes some courage to withhold unwhole- 
some sweets and always keep to suitable foods when 
one's hostess sets the dainty and the rich before the child. 

Parents who do not allow children's naps to be dis- 
turbed for anything short of emergency, who protect 
them from teasing play that brings on a tearful condition, 
who safeguard them from the contagion of common 
towels, handkerchiefs and eating utensils, may some- 
times be considered over-fastidious, but the resulting 
health and happiness prove the wisdom of such a policy. 
Simple hygienic rules and corresponding habits are 
easily established, such as the following : 

Always wash your hands before touching food. 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 73 




w M 



174 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Always throw away pieces of food that have dropped 
on the floor. 

Always use a very clean part of your handkerchief to 
wipe your eyes. 

A well-known student of children has made the asser- 
tion that practically all the correct physical habits should 
be established before the age of six. Of course, the 
nature of habit formation must be understood and the 
parent must definitely decide the order of acquirement.^ 

Since the child's self-education begins soon after his 
arrival and is fostered by the things which come to him 
as he is bathed and dressed and fed and taken out, as well 
as by the toys that fond relatives and friends shower 
upon him, it is unnecessary to answer the question so 
often asked by earnest parents, "When should a child's 
education begin ? " ^ 

When the rattle stage and the putting everything into 
his mouth have become a part of the child's past, when 
walking and some control of oral speech have been ac- 
quired, didactic material may be put within his reach. 
If he finds on the shelf with familiar playthings the broad 
stair, the sandpaper board, and the hearing boxes (see 
pp. 69, 76), the day will come when he will take one 
or the other ' down for use. A lesson may be given 
immediately ; it may be that of building up the blocks 
and then taking them down while the child watches. 
Left with the material, the child will probably attempt 
a similar performance. His efforts will at first be full of 

1 Education, Thorndike, Chapter VI. Talks to Teachers, James, 
Chapter VIII. 

^ Mental Growth and Control, Oppenheim, Chapter VII. 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 75 

errors, but so long as he is attempting to place blocks 
upon blocks, he may remain at the activity. When his 
efforts show some discrimination of size, there should 
come the formal lesson making this explicit. The mother 







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Italian Children enjoying the Merry Traditional CjAme of 
" Round and Round the Village." 

will take the smallest and the largest blocks and carry out 
the three Seguin steps. Left to himself, the child will 
redouble his efforts at piling, making somewhat closer 
discriminations. Again the mother will give a lesson, 
and another until the ideas of small, smaller, smallest; 



176 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

and large, larger, largest, seem to be grasped. The final 
stage is reached when without error and hesitation the 
child makes and remakes the tower. With these pos- 
sibilities exhausted, or possibly before, he has turned to 
some other material which has been similarly treated. 

If the parent is interested in seeing how much of the 
skill developed with one piece of apparatus will be trans- 
ferred to angther, the frame of cylindrical insets differing 
in thickness and length may next be offered to the child. 
The adjectives that apply here are again large, larger, 
largest; small, smaller, smallest. The presentation 
should in such a case be confined to taking the insets 
out and putting them back without any comment as to 
difference in size of holes and corresponding cylinders. 
Evidence of the transfer should be looked for in the 
child's spontaneous scrutiny of the objects rather than 
the mere promiscuous trying one and then another until 
the proper places are found. If a careful record has been 
kept of the number of times the child played with the 
tower, of the number of trials made in each play period 
with it, and of the exact number of minutes consumed, 
and a similar record is made of his use of this set of 
cylindrical insets, there will be some basis for considera- 
tion of the question as to the extent to which power is 
transferred. To secure still more exact data in the above 
experiment, the cylindrical insets should have been 
used in an initial test ; the amount of time, the number 
of efforts, the character of this (hit and miss or thought- 
ful scrutiny), and the degree of success at the close of 
the period, should have been recorded. The tower 
should then be given for the practice of the power of 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 77 

discriminating size. When this has reached its high- 
est level of success, the cylindrical insets should again 
be given. The effort at this time would constitute 
the final test ; the data of time trials, errors (due to not 
scrutinizing and to mistaken judgments), and successes 
(due to accident and to judgment), could then be used in 
comparison with the same data on the initial test and 
the transfer of power be reckoned. A number of such 
studies have been made upon adults in psychological 
laboratories. These would be helpful to any one desiring 
to know the method of procedure that results in accurate 
scientific data. By the average parent this exact 
measuring will not be desired, as it makes greater de- 
mands upon time and energy than can be given. But 
some recording of observations should be made if parents 
are to acquire definite information regarding the value 
of these materials in child development. 

It so happened that at a demonstration of Montessori 
materials to adults this summer, one of these less care- 
fully conducted experiments was made. A girl of three 
was given the cylindrical insets differing in thickness. 
She watched while the instructor took them out and put 
them in. She was given a chance to do likewise. When 
it was evident that she understood that the process was 
one of "putting in," the next step was taken. The 
teacher said, "This is thin, this is thick," and put each 
into its respective place, filled in the other openings and 
then took them all out, saying again, "This is thin, this 
is thick," for the two extremes. The child's next effort 
involved the spontaneous saying of these words and a 
slight attempt at being guided by the difference. As 



178 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

time went on she manifested quicker appreciation of 
exact and of inexact fittings, and then of judging care- 
fully before making an attempt at fitting. The ex- 
tremes were more easily done. Though her interest 
was still strong, her attention was distracted purposely 
to other objects. Later she was allowed to come back 
to the same frame of insets ; and still later to the frame 
in which the cylinders varied both in height and thick- 
ness. A general account was kept of the time and 
tendency to use judgment, rather than of the trial and 
error method. The resetting was accomplished more 
quickly, with fewer errors and with more thoughtful- 
ness. Just how much improvement there was in speed 
and accuracy could not be determined because the ex- 
periment was not carefully conditioned. 

Other points for observation should also be sought by 
those who have the opportunity of seeing children with 
these materials. Among them are the age at which 
such activities as the putting in and taking out the 
cylindrical insets, the building of the tower and the 
broad and long stairs, the matching of the color bobbins, 
the setting of the sound boxes in order, counting, etc., 
make their strongest and most persisting appeals. This 
would undoubtedly mean placing many materials within 
the child's reach, being ready to give the appropriate 
lesson for any piece chosen at a given time and then 
making a record of how long the child stayed with it, 
how often he went back to it, and when he ceased to pay 
any further attention to it. 

There should be noted, too, evidences of the child's 
apphcation of the ideas or skill gained to other things 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 79 




f^ ^^ 



fiH 



a 
O 



s -5 



l8o THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

in his environment. Does he think these in terms of 
large, larger and largest; small, smaller, smallest? Of 
long, longer, longest; short, shorter, shortest? Does 
he think flowers and ribbons in terms of light, lighter, 
lightest; dark, darker, darkest? Differences in size, 
color, texture, temperature, weight and form are every- 
where about him. Is he more sensitive to them because 
of the experience with materials which artificially embody 
these qualities apart from the natural home and outdoor 
environment? Is such sensitiveness an added source 
of control over pleasure in that natural environment ? 

To the parents familiar with kindergarten material, 
another feature of interest will be the relative degree of 
appeal (and the age at which it is made) of the gifts. 
An ideal equipment for the home would therefore be 
comprised of both the didactic materials and the gifts 
and occupation (in enlarged form). The arrangement 
at the Children's Class of the summer session at the 
University of Montana is suggestive here. On two low 
shelves on one side of the large playroom were placed 
the Montessori materials ; on similar shelves on the 
opposite side were placed the kindergarten materials. 
For a portion of each day, the children were at liberty 
to choose from either kind of material. The instructors 
responded to requests for suggestions, showed how the 
didactic materials were to be used, and kept a general 
record of what occurred. A specific one was out of the 
question, since two people could not possibly keep tab 
on twenty active children playing with many more than 
twenty playthings. Since there was only a single set 
of gifts, grdup work with the same was not possible. 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION l8l 







W '33 



^ :§ 



l82 . THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

It was attempted with the so-called occupation materials, 
such as clay, crayons, paper and scissors. This class 
suggests the other ideal feature for the home experiment, 
— the presence of other children, though not necessarily 
so many; for the essentially social capacity of the child 
must not be ignored. 

"The third quality that must strike the scientific observer of 
little children is their remarkable desire for, and facility in, social 
intercourse. Even in extreme infancy, the baby longs to have 
someone near him. In his first days he prefers to lie in a lap rather 
than in a cushioned crib. Only with protestations and cries will 
he break his social bonds and voyage off into the lonely land of 
sleep. In the first year he greets animals and babies as his peers. 
After his first year, any child who seeks solitude is something of a 
monster. This intelligent interpretation of, and response to, the 
social forces about him early mark the child as the master of all 
living things. At three years old, he reads a face as adults read 
books. At six he has passed through and at least partially assimi- 
lated most of the social experiences of life." ^ 

The following questions have been suggested by the 
writer's discussions of Montessori and kindergarten 
principles with mothers : 

1. What is the fallacy of the argument, "But I don't 
want my child to go to the Children's House or the 
kindergarten. He is the only baby I have and he will 
grow up so soon" ? Or, "I want my child to dig in the 
dirt until he is six or seven. It will then be time enough 
for him to begin to learn" ? 

2. What injustice has been done to the child who has 
been trained to no feeling of responsibility for doing 
things that help in the daily tasks of the house or yard, 

^ National Education Association, Barnes, 1908. 



THE OLDEST AGENCY OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 83 

who has arrived at the age of six without the ability 
to dress and undress himself, to hang up and take down 
his own belongings ? What disappointment is likely 
to meet the parent who says, "My child is not to work 
now. I want him to play and have a good time and when 
he is older he will help me" ? What distinction should 
be made between play, work and drudgery ? 

3. Why is the poHcy of paying the child with money 
or gifts for things that he must do an expensive one ? 
Why should a child derive money from two sources: 
(a) a small allowance, and (b) earning through doing 
regularly a necessary task as soon as he knows what 
money is for? What are the pernicious elements from 
the standpoint of the child's welfare as well as from the 
standpoint of family economy, of giving out pennies, 
nickels, etc., for use at the candy shops and picture 
shows ? 

4. How much foundation is there in the statement 
of G. Stanley Hall, that "the child's emotional attitudes, 
his moods and disposition are in a measure determined 
by the time he reaches his third birthday"? What 
suggestion does this carry to persons who enjoy teasing 
or seeing children teased to the point of an outburst 
of tears of angry retaliation or of prolonged pouting? 
What suggestion does it carry to the person who says, 
"I know my boy doesn't obey me now, but when he is 
six, I'll turn him over to his father and he will straighten 
him out"? 

5. Show that a lie is only a tool which an unorganized 
mind can seize to make its way out of a difficulty. Is 
it a natural consequence of a he when the child refuses 



184 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

to stay with the poHceman while the mother at the rail- 
way station goes to the window to get her ticket vali- 
dated, she having said to the runaway child some minutes 
before, "Come here or the policeman will get you"? 
Are such threats confined to any particular class of 
parents as measured by their financial, occupational 
or social position? What is the characteristic of the 
type ? What remedy can you suggest for it ? 

6. What would happen if every parent understood 
the theory (and applied it) embodied in Aristotle's con- 
tention that three things only are necessary in the rear- 
ing of children successfully? 

I St. Noble birth. (Not "blue blood" in the veins 
of parents, but "blue" conduct, conversation and 
thoughts in their daily intercourse with each other and 
children.) ^ 

2d. Habituation. (Training the child's conduct and 
conversation and thought in the direction of the fine 
examples which surround him.) ^ 

3d. Rationalization. (Leading the child to under- 
stand the reasons for courtesy, honorableness, chastity 
and other virtues, individual and social, when he is ready 
to understand the reasons.) ^ 

Show that Aristotle counted upon (a) the power of 
unconscious absorption, (b) conscious imitation of good 
copy and (c) ideas, to develop excellent characters. 

Show to what extent Doctor Montessori seems to pro- 
vide for a, b and c in her system. 

^ The Montessori Method, p. 69. ^Ibid., pp. 105-106. 

3/iz^., Chapter XXI. 



CHAPTER IX 

OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION. THE KINDER- 
GARTEN AND THE PRIMARY SCHOOL 

The home as an institution having opportunities and 
responsibilities for the direct and systematic education 
of children has been discussed. The agencies outside 
the home doing similar work have come into existence 
through the distribution and specialization of labor. 
This historic fact is embodied in our very language. 
The origin of the word "teacher" can be traced to a 
word meaning "one who stands in the place of a parent." 

The primary school is older than the kindergarten. 
Like the kindergarten, it is newer than the grammar and 
high school, the college and university. Not until the 
basis for universal education was understood from the 
standpoint of the welfare of the state and the individual, 
were public funds levied upon to establish primary 
schools. 

This pubHc support was followed by laws making 
education compulsory. The Renaissance and the Ref- 
ormation pointed the way to the worth of every human 
being and his right as such to opportunities for develop- 
ment. The logical sequel to this was the estabHshment 
of public school systems. Germany's system was the 
first of the modern type. Its beginnings are to be found 
in the work of Luther and Melanchthon from 1524 on. 
The compulsory feature first made its appearance in 

i8s 



i86 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




L 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 87 

Weimar in 1619. The distinctive contention that an 
education, at least of an elementary character, must be 
the possession of every person if "national prosperity 
and stability" were to be attained, was most clearly 
seen in the beginning by Frederick the Great of Prussia.^ 
His laws concerning education were formulated in 1763. 

It took a long time for the idea of "for the masses as 
well as the upper classes" to permeate the machinery 
of political and rehgious institutions abroad and in the 
United States. In the meantime, philanthropic in- 
dividuals and organizations came to the rescue by 
financing "Infant Schools" for the children of the less 
well-to-do. The wealthier people readily took care of 
their own children. 

The use of public funds was made first in connection 
with the education of older pupils. Gradually it was 
drawn upon for younger and younger ones. As late 
as the second quarter of the nineteenth century, Boston 
still insisted that the rudiments of the Three R's should 
be a prerequisite for entrance into the pubHc school 
system. These "beginnings" were sometimes acquired 
in the home, and sometimes in the "Dame Schools" 
supported by tuition. Some states show the influence 
of this early tendency to go from the top downward in 
matters of education and still hold to six as the school 
age entrance. This accounts in part for the slower de- 
velopment of the kindergarten in some states than in 
others.^ 

That some sensitive nerves connect with private and 

' Text-Book on the History of Education, Monroe. 

2 The Kindergarten in American Education, Vanderwalker, p. 187. 



1 88 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

public purses is evidenced when funds are requested for 
the expert training of young children. Men seem more 
wilHng to appropriate money for higher education and 
for business than for training during the important 
educative period of early childhood. This is natural 
and not to be condemned. The work of men has con- 
cerned itself chiefly with the production, transformation 
and distribution of the necessities and luxuries of life; 
they have had less responsibility than women for know- 
ing the needs and capacities of young children. Those 
who have sought such insight have often been co-workers 
with women in movements looking to as favorable and 
full a consideration of children as of clams, or young 
colts, or cotton, or corn. 

The children's era is approaching. Its arrival has 
been hastened through the comparative emancipation 
of woman from a subjection that was marital, intellectual, 
economical and pohtical. Woman's influence is now 
being felt more and more, both indirectly in frank, 
helpful discussion with men and other women, and 
directly in expressing her best convictions for and against 
measures involving the physical, social and mental 
welfare of her own and her neighbor's children. 

Considering the kindergarten and the primary school 
as we find them to-day, this must be said of them, as 
it may be said of the home, the church, the government 
or any other institution, — there are some very poor, 
some mediocre, some fairly good and some excellent ones. 
To judge any institution, or nation, for that matter, by 
its most defective members is, of course, folly. Since 
the "best" so far attained is illuminating in that it 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 



189 



points to the path that must be taken to a better "best," 
the discussion of the modern American primary school 
and kindergarten will be Hmited, as in the case of the 
discussion of the Children's Houses, to facts concerning 
the higher types, not to travesties upon such schools, 
or yet to antique survivals of a darker pedagogical age. 
The writer has seen Children's Houses in Rome which 
Doctor Montessori could not and would not acknowl- 
edge as embodiments of her principles; she has seen 
kindergartens and primary schools in this country that 
fall far below the standards of both the founders and the 
advocates of these agencies. When scientific studies 
are made and their status plotted, it will probably be 
found that they follow what the experimental psycholo- 
gist calls the normal curve. One sixth of them will fall 
into the lowest or bad group ; anther sixth into the 
highest or excellent group ; and in between will be found 




the other two thirds gathered most thickly about the 
average or mediocre group. 

A study of one hundred kindergartens or primary 
schools that were representative of all existing types 
would tend to show the grouping suggested by the above 
diagram. Some of the criticisms of the kindergarten 



IQO THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

that have been made by advocates of the Montessori 
method would seem to be based on the lower one sixth 
group, for they ignore everything above that group. 
Whether it was a kindergarten of this type which was in- 
volved in the following incident, the writer does not know, 
but this kind of unscientific criticism is sometimes made 
by men and women who have influence in their communi- 
ties ; hence its pernicious effects. A mayor of a thriv- 
ing city once stated in a meeting, "Now, gentlemen, I do 
not want to undermine what the lady has just said, 
but I want you to know my experience with the kinder- 
garten. My children have been ruined by it; ruined 
physically, mentally and morally." The "lady" re- 
ferred to had just called the attention of the convention 
assembled to the fact that the proposed measure before 
the state legislature raising the school age from four to 
six years would put the kindergarten upon the philan- 
thropic and private basis ; that this would be a step back 
from the fundamental principle that it is the duty of the 
state to educate its young children. Parenthetically, it 
may be said that the proposed measure met with defeat. 
When the opportunity came, "the lady " asked the mayor 
how many children were in the family, how many were 
incurable invalids, how many stupid, how many criminal, 
how many had in fact been obliged to sojourn in hospi- 
tal, asylum or reformatory. The answer was, "None." 
Further inquiry proved that all these so-called "ruined" 
children were up with the average in intelligence, phys- 
ical strength and social development. Unfortunately 
many such misleading statements regarding the kinder- 
garden are allowed to pass unchallenged. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION I9I 

Reviewing the history of the elementary school during 
the past decade, an unbiased mind cannot fail to recog- 
nize that the kindergarten has proved the leaven which 
has not only brought new life and vitality to the primary 
school, but has stimulated interest in playgrounds, school 
gardens, story afternoons in public Hbraries, excursions 
to woods and parks, and other telling influences in child 
life. Its basic principles, too, have withstood the 
searching tests of modern psychology, biology and soci- 
ology in a manner which proves their soundness. On this 
point, Doctor Irving King of the University of Iowa 
said at the International Kindergarten Union : 

"It is always interesting for the advocates of any doctrine to 
see themselves in relation to the great world of thought that Hes 
outside their particular sphere of action. This is especially true 
if the broader view reveals this doctrine as vital and fundamental 
in its more remote as well as in its more immediate relations. 

"All of the educational philosophies of the first half of the 19th 
century have had to be radically reconstructed in the light of the 
growing knowledge of the last twenty-five years. It should be a 
satisfaction to the Kindergarten to know that Froebel's philosophy 
has suffered less in this direction than have any of the others In 
many respects it seems that Froebel's educational conceptions 
have themselves been the dominant reconstructing factors, the 
centers about which the new educational philosophy has been and 
is being worked out. They seem, in a word, to have furnished in 
many cases the clew to some of the most important of the recent 
developments in educational doctrine. I am not prepared, how- 
ever, to say just how far recent changes in point of view are to be 
traced directly to the influence of Froebel. I do know that some 
of the most virile thinkers of the present day owe much directly, 
both in the way of point of view and of stimulus, to Froebel." ^ 

^ The Kindergarten Magazine, May, 191 2, p. 240. 



192 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




L 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 93 

While most American educators would agree to this 
psychologist's estimate of underlying principles, the prac- 
tice of the kindergarten is subjected to sharp criticism, 
not only among patrons, but among superintendents and 
grade teachers as well. It is difficult to bear with these 
when they happen to be based upon ignorance or preju- 
dice, or upon the unskilled and sentimental activities of 
the lower one-sixth group in connection with old and 
discarded occupation materials, long drawn out gift 
dictations, discussions of the Mother Play and other 
phases of kindergarten theory in technical terms, and 
quotation of mysterious passages from Froebel. 

There is another type of criticism still more disturb- 
ing, which comes from both educators and patrons who 
are real friends of the movement. They recognize cause 
for anxiety in the kindergarten field among workers who 
possibly compose the average or two-thirds group. This 
is found in the sanguine attitude, the lack of acquaintance 
with the problems of the primary grades, the Kmited 
knowledge of advance movements in matters that 
affect children, the effort to bring children up to adult 
standards by the use of subject matter which is beyond 
them, and the reluctance to give up traditional methods 
of procedure in kindergarten work even though these 
are not in Hne with the best of modern insight. Every 
kindergartner should read the address on "Some Hopes 
and Fears for the Kindergarten," given recently by 
Professor Patty Smith Hill at the convention of the 
International Kindergarten Union in Washington. This 
far-seeing leader, after stating her reasons for profound 
faith in the kindergarten, offered splendid counsel regard- 



194 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



ing "ways and means for building a more hopeful future." 
She said in part : 

"There are few changes in the nature and development of the 
child as he passes from the kindergarten into the primary to justify 




Kindergarten Children watching the Goldfish. 
(Iowa State Teachers College.) 

the present separation and sharp distinctions between the two. 
The period from four to eight is practically one, and our school 
systems should unite the corresponding grades by training teachers 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 95 

for kindergarten and primary together, so that a teacher may be 
prepared to teach the child anywhere from his fourth to his seventh 
or eighth year. The results of such a unification would be equally 
beneficial. The primary training would sift out of the kinder- 
garten many activities which have crept into its procedure — 
activities which have little or no educational value and persist 
from tradition. While making the child temporarily happy, they 
lead nowhere, and the child would be equally happy and much 
better employed in other directions. On the other hand, the 
spirit of the kindergarten which has brought a life-giving element 
into education would pervade the grades to a far greater extent, 
bringing happiness to both teachers and children, and a freedom 
from an overloaded curriculum which makes children look back 
upon the kindergarten as the happiest period in their education. 

"Is the reputation we have as a body of teachers separate and 
apart from education altogether unjust ? Whether true or not, 
we have impressed people as blind followers of the past, as fetish 
worshipers, loyally clinging to one leader as the sole authority for 
all truth. It is largely due to our endless quotation of Froebel, 
on any and every problem of education and life, that Froebel, 
worthy of the deepest respect, is coming to be smiled upon as the 
educational idol of a deluded following of women ; that the 
kindergarten is coming to be looked upon as 'the home of lost 
causes,' and 'impossible loyalties.' Our lack of perspective in 
defending those aspects of Froebel's work which science and 
common sense have disproved are sufficient reasons for Matthew 
Arnold's criticism of Oxford being applied to the kindergarten as 
*a sanctuary in which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices 
find shelter and protection after they have been hunted out of 
every comer of the world.' Froebel does not merit such treatment, 
but we should not blame others for this. On the contrary, we 
should put ourselves to the test. Are we broad in our educational 
interests ; are we willing to merge ourselves into the larger whole 
of education, even at the cost of yielding many of our traditions, 
our philosophical lingo, our technical terms which separate us from 
other teachers ? Would we be willing to yield such purely ' kinder- 



196 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

gartenish' terms as 'gifts,' 'occupations/ 'life,' 'beauty,' and 
'knowledge forms,' the kindergarten 'program,' and many other 
of like nature, if in so doing we unified our work with those in the 
elementary school along the same line ? Could we forego our own 
individual name, if by so doing we could eliminate the distance 
which now exists between the kindergarten and the school ? Why 
should we have to say ' the kindergarten and the school ' any more 
than the primary and the school ? Education has developed from 
above downward, and primary education is a matter of recent 
universality — yet it has become so organic a part of the school 
that no one thinks of saying the primary and the school. One 
includes primary as an integral part of the school. Is this equally 
true of kindergarten, and are we willing to make any righteous 
sacrifice to bring this to pass ? 

"When we are willing to lay aside every dead weight of tradi- 
tion, and the educational sins which so easily beset us, then the 
limitations of the kindergarten will be acknowledged and out- 
grown, and the best in Froebel will be so deeply rooted in both 
the kindergarten and the school, that the eternal verities for 
which it stands will live as a vital force in all education even if 
every kindergarten, so-called, existing as an institution separate 
and apart from education as a whole, should fade from memory." ^ 

If the broad-minded attitude expressed by Miss Hill 
becomes prevalent among kindergarten workers, the 
sacrij5.ce she mentions will not be called for. 

In the recent New York City school inquiry, Professor 
Frank M. McMurry of Columbia University was the one 
appointed to make an investigation regarding the quality 
of teaching, the course of study and the supervision of 
the elementary schools. This report, resulting from 
facts taken at first hand, is just published. It is based 
upon standards in connection with four factors : 

^ Kindergarten Review, September, 1913, pp. 15-21. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION I97 

ist. Motive on the part of the pupils. 
2d. Weighing of values on the part of the pupils. 
3d. Organization of ideas by pupils. 
4th. Initiative by pupils. 
The method of judging took into account the following : 

"The original ability of the teacher is only one of the things 
that determine the quality of classroom instruction. The abili- 
ties of her superior ofificers are, likewise, important factors. The 
curriculum is a great aid or an obstacle to good results, according 
to the insight shown in selecting its subject matter ; the syllabi, 
which interpret this curriculum and offer suggestions on method, 
are a guide and a source of inspiration or depression to teachers 
according to the definiteness of statement and the breadth of view 
that they evince ; and, finally, the supervision by principals and 
superintendents tends to produce an enthusiasm that will mani- 
fest itself outside of school in extra preparation, and in the class 
by alertness to each pupil's condition ; or it tends in the opposite 
direction. These other influences, taken together, must very 
greatly affect the atmosphere that surrounds the teacher. With- 
out their positive support instruction can hardly be good ; and, 
if they are doing their work fairly well, instruction is not likely to 
be poor." ^ 

The results secured by the application of these stand- 
ards, and the consideration of these conditions in New 
York kindergartens, are probably a fair estimate of the 
kindergarten situation in most of the large cities in 
America, where, close to the great universities and train- 
ing school centers, the best prepared teachers are found. 
These would probably fall within the excellent one- sixth 
group of our normal curve. The far-reaching signifi- 

1 Elementary School Standards, Frank M. McMurry, pp. 55-56. 
School Efficiency Series, edited by Paul H. Hanus, published by World 
Book Co., Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York. 



igS THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

cance of this estimate is that it comes from a leader in 
the educational world who views the kindergarten with 
a better perspective than would be credited to one within 
the ranks. Here follows a portion of the report. 

INSTRUCTION IN THE KINDERGARTEN 

INCULCATION OF PURPOSES IN CHILDREN 

Specific and childlike aims tending to call out a high degree of 
effort are very prominent in the kindergartens. A certain form 
is folded to serve as the mount for mother's valentine, to be pre- 
sented at the valentine party of the Mothers' Meeting ; a bag is 
folded and sewed, to be used in the postman's game ; . . . 

These detailed purposes play directly into the broader aims that 
are plainly in evidence in the kindergarten. Such are : a love of 
stories, of plants and animals, of games, of objects of beauty, and 
of constructive work — a love that finds expression in little deeds 
such as those named, and that leads to more far-reaching hopes 
and plans. 

ATTENTION TO ORGANIZATION 

Most kindergartners endeavor to organize the more or less 
random and instinctive activities of even their youngest children. 
At the kindergarten age the organization of ideas takes place 
largely through the organization of activity, the ordered act being 
considered the very best evidence of ordered thought. A repre- 
sentative play is worked out bit by bit, until a reasonably finished 
whole results ; ... all such efforts call for organization in the 
same sense as does the high school student's essay. The children 
are less conscious of the process, but they profit by it just as truly. 
One seldom visits a kindergarten without observing that the kin- 
dergartner herself is carrying the idea of organization constantly 
in mind, and without observing also that the children are doing 
the same thing, to some extent, in their attention to sequence, 
to the interrelation of facts, and to grouping. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 1 99 

Indeed, one of the most serious faults of the kindergarten is 
found in its over-devotion to sequence, particularly to the logical 
sequence of the adult, which is probably even more a source of tor- 
ment to some children in the kindergarten than to any in the ele- 
mentary school. . . . 

But while there are such excesses here and there, we are con- 
vinced that on the whole an emphasis is placed upon organization 
of ideas in the kindergarten that is generally in accord with the 
worth placed upon it in life outside. 

ATTENTION TO RELATIVE VALUES — IMAGINATION AND REASONING 

The kindergarten makes noticeable provision for relative values. 
Emotional response, appreciation, preservation of an inquiring 
attitude of mind, socialized behavior, seem to be regarded in the 
regular instruction as of at least equal importance with knowledge. 
The general viewpoint of the kindergartner is that whatever is 
done in the kindergarten is of value to the extent that it counts, 
or functions, in life. Hence the tendency to weigh worth is com- 
mon here, with both teachers and children. 

Again, however, a defect is to be noted ; namely, an extreme 
devotion on the teacher's part to technique, to precision, and to 
exact imitation now and then, which tends to influence the children 
to forget all about the real worth of things. This is true particu- 
larly in the use of materials, and is not representative of the work 
as a whole. 

PROVISION FOR INITIATIVE AND INDEPENDENCE 

Kindergarten teachers have an enviable opportunity for en- 
couraging the exercise of initiative and individuality of children, 
because uniformity is not demanded. Without a fixed program 
and without rigid requirements of accomplishment, there is every 
incentive for teachers to allow pupils to do original and creative 
work ; and this opportunity is not lost. It is common for children 
to set up aims, to organize their activities, to suggest subject 
matter or experience that forms the basis for their play and work, 



200 THE MONTESSOE.I METHOD 

to choose songs, stories, games, and materials, and to lead in many 
of the undertakings. 

While this seems to be the dominant tendency, it is also evident 
that in quite a number of the kindergartens dictation exercises 
and ready-made play that require complete submission of the part 
of the pupil, are so prominent that they directly oppose self-ex- 
pression and self-reliance. 

On the whole, there are two very distinct currents observable 
in the kindergartens. The one represents a slavish devotion to 
the adult point of view in the selection of subject matter and to 
adult logic in its presentation, resulting in rigid organization, 
ignoring of relative values, and neglect of the child himself. The 
other shows the opposite tendencies. Which of these two shall 
finally prevail is a matter of grave concern, requiring the constant 
watchfulness of all who are especially interested in this field. 

But at present we feel little hesitation in saying that the kinder- 
garten, as a whole, meets the test of the four standards set up 
in a satisfactory manner ; and that therefore the instruction there 
rests on the higher plane, i.e. it is good at present and promising 
for the future.^ 

Judging the kindergarten and primary school of to-day 
by their best standards, how do they resemble, how do 
they differ from,, how shall they be improved by, the 
Montessori school ? 

First. There is resemblance in the underlying ideas 
in regard to the child's, the teacher's, and the curriculum's 
contribution to the process of education. The child is 
a center of outgoing energy which makes him more than 
a passive recipient of impressions from his environment ; 
he is an active acquirer of it. His equipment of tenden- 
cies to physical movements of all sorts and the accom- 
panying activity of the sense organs have already been 

1 Elementary School Standards, Frank M. McMurry, pp. 56-59. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 20I 

elaborated in previous talks. This results in the acquisi- 
tion of coordinations that constitute the elemental con- 
trol of his own body and of his environment, both human 
and natural. These prerequisites are gradually organ- 
ized on higher levels as they function with tendencies 
that later take turns in becoming decidedly prominent. 
Among these are the impulse to collect and arrange 
things ; to be curious about the what, how and why 
of objects and processes ; to put into objective form 
through gesture, speech, drawing, making models and 
dramatic play, what has been gained through the 
earlier manipulation and imitation ; to seek others of 
similar ages for companionship which eventually arrives 
at cooperative effort. 

Second. They stand upon common ground when they 
insist that the child's constant contribution of impul- 
sive instinctive activity must be utiHzed in the educative 
method. They differ, however, in their emphasis upon 
the impulses enumerated ; for example, where the Ameri- 
can primary school and kindergarten considers dramatic 
representation in connection with reading, Hterature 
and games very vital, it is given less attention in the 
Children's House. 

Third. They agree when they maintain that the 
teacher's responsibility is twofold : (a) To be aware 
through observation of the child as an individual. The 
child will be manifesting these impulses somewhat in the 
form, time and order that all normal children of his class 
and age indicate them, and because of the similar herit- 
age of ''humanness" ; somewhat, too, out of that form, 
time and order because of his pecuHar white or yellow, 



^^Wi^^^^^ 



202 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




i^ 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 203 

English or Chinese, Brown and Jones, or San Foy and Sing 
Ling inheritance and environment, (b) To place within 
the child's environment those materials which will not 
only satisfy the manifested impulse through encouraging 
its function, but will do it with material that is desirable 
because it is not antagonistic to the trend of accepted 
social values. These two considerations in relation to 
the selection of subject matter were recently stated 
thus: 

1. "The curriculum of the school shall represent the needs and 
interests of present day life in our own immediate environment 
and the world at large — the social factor. 

2. " The work at any given stage of a child's development shall 
be that which is adapted to the immediate enrichment of his life 
as measured by his individual needs and capacities — the psy- 
chological factor." ^ 

Having in mind these two balancing factors, the 
psychological and social, we find that the schools vary 
in their selection of subject matter for children between 
the ages of three and six somewhat according to the fol- 
lowing outline which is not offered as a complete group- 
ing of subject matter but rather as a suggestive basis of 
comparison which may stimulate study and criticism. 
In such a comparative study the recent report of the 
Committee of Nineteen on "The Theory and Practice 
of the Kindergarten" will be found valuable in con- 
junction with Doctor Montessori's text — The Montessori 
Method.2 

1 The Speyer School Curriculum. Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, 19 13. 

2 The Kindergarten, by Susan Blow, Patty Hill, Elizabeth Harrison. 
Houghton, MiflBin Company. 



204 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



The CHILDREN'S HOUSE 

1. Practical Life. 

a. Care of the body, par- 
tial dressing. 

h. Actual care of rooms. 

c. Actualserving and clear- 
ing away of luncheon. 

2. Physical Education. 

a. Apparatus work for 
bodily poise, and for 
strengthening the 
larger muscles of legs, 
arms and trunk. 

h. Exercises in standing, 
walking, sitting. 

c. Organized games and 
free play. 



Sense-training. 
a. Exercises with didactic 

materials. 
h. Incidental exercises in 

general environment. 

The Language Arts. 

a. The Three R's dealt 
with early. 

i. Training in clear enun- 
ciation, good voice, 
correct speech. 

c. Some literature in form 

of stories. 

d. Conversation. 



The Kindergarten and 
Primary School 

a, b, c. Exceptional rather 
than common. 



Rather unusual except for 
playground apparatus. 



h. Incidental to other activ- 
ities. 

c. Much the same with 
greater emphases upon 
dramatic and represent- 
ative games. 

a. Minimum amount. 

b. Scarcely any outside of 

situations directed to- 
ward other ends. 

a. All postponed to first grade. 

Tendency to postpone 
arithmetic to second or 
third grade. 

b, c, d. Much the same with 

decided emphasis upon 
story tellmg. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 



205 



5. The Constructive and 
Graphic Arts. 
Modeling, drawing, 
water colors and 
some construction. 



6. Music. 

Singing, rhythm. Train- 
ing in voice quality 
and in appreciation 
through listening to 
choice music. 

7. Ethics. 

a. Direct conversations on 

behavior. 

b. Indirect lessons in rev- 

erence, nurture and 
service through daily 
experience, i.e. 
Morning devotions 
Care of younger 

children 
Care of room 
Care of pets 
Gardening 

c. Reverence and love for 

the beautiful and 
good stimulated by 
simple and childlike 
experiences with fun- 
damental things in 
nature, art, scientific 
processes and social 
institutions. 



All carry over with empha- 
sis upon building and ad- 
ditions in the way of pa- 
per cutting, cardboard 
and wood construction. 

Similar. 



a. Unusual. 

b, c. All carry over. (Usual.) 



2o6 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



It would be seen from these parallel columns that 
the points of greatest variance are those under "4," 
and it will at once occur to the student of the history 
of elementary work in this country that these fea- 
tures constituted at one time a large part of the mate- 
rial offered to the child before the age of seven. He will 
recognize, too, that when the kindergarten held forth 
the ideal of a curriculum enriched by hand work, games, 
physical exercise, gardening and stories, the primary 




Little Builders in the Kindergarten. 
(Iowa State Teachers College.) 

school was slow to respond, partly because of the nature 
of the educational conception of elementary school 
teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, 
parents and other tax payers. This condition of affairs 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 207 

gave the kindergarten its first setback in practice, for 
it had to be cramped to meet and adjust itself to existing 
ideals and practices. For recovery from this, it has had 
to wait, and is waiting, upon changes in the elementary 
school which are being brought about as the sociologist 
and psychologist throw new light upon children's capaci- 
ties and needs. 

When it comes to the comparison of the content of 
some of the subjects found in both curricula, one finds 
a similar correspondence between what once was and 
now is in kindergarten, primary school and Children's 
House, respectively. Holding the idea that one 
must proceed from the simple to the complex, Froebel, 
for instance, planned that drawing should develop 
from Hnes varying in length and direction, to their 
combination into angles, and angles into plane figures 
called forms of knowledge. The groups of Hnes, the 
angles and plane figures, were also arranged into designs 
or patterns called beauty forms. 

The primary school at this same period was teach- 
ing reading by beginning with letters as the simplest 
(because smallest) element and proceeding to words, 
sentences, etc., as progressively more complex. It 
taught writing by finding still simpler elements in the 
parts of the letters. Practice upon them was followed 
by whole letters, words, etc. It is commonly acknowl- 
edged that this mode of procedure proved extremely 
laborious for children. 

At the first glance, it would seem as though Doctor 
Montessori had followed the same principle and re- 
peated these earlier efforts, for she does begin with the 



208 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

elements analyzed out of wholes; these are mastered 
in turn and then built up into the wholes. But it must 
be borne in mind that she makes use of a vital source of 
information, the tactile-muscular sensory activity, con- 
cerning which the teachers of long ago were uninformed; 
that she has writing precede reading ; that both are 
acquired early and with an ease and speed that elimi- 
nate all drudgery, and in an atmosphere so splendidly 
free from the strain of the military order of the oldtime 
primary school that the child's body, mind and spirit are 
pliable and responsive. 



CHAPTER X 

OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION — CONTINUED 

The comparison of the Children's House and the 
American kindergarten and primary school made thus 
far, grow out of the statement that the child, the teacher 
and the curriculum each have their peculiar contribu- 
tions to make to the educative process. But these 
three factors have been considered apart from the 
feature of method — the manner in which the child 
and curriculum are brought together by the teacher. 
It is now almost a truism in educational discussions to 
say that the teacher's method of teaching is just the 
other aspect of the child's method of learning. But 
the child's methods, like those of the adult and of the 
race, are several.^ Contact, manipulation, experimen- 
tation without aid and with aid and purpose, uncon- 
scious imitation of copy — these are all necessary 
and legitimate ways of coming to know objects, people 
and processes. With these as basic apperceptive 
materials, the child can also learn through looking at 
pictures and listening to and reading the words of 
others. In fact, were his acquisition limited by what 
he could experience directly, he would know but Kttle 
beyond the span of his own generation and locality. 

Now the teacher's method must therefore be one of 

1 Kindergarten Problems, MacVannels. 
p 209 



210 THE MONTESSORl METHOD 

"methods." She must know the appropriate time, 
place and number of educative situations in which 
direct and indirect experiences shall predominate or fuse 
and in which she must be relatively passive and active. 
No one will deny that the older primary school was a 
place in which indirect experiencing and activity of 
the teacher were overwhelmingly in evidence. The 
balance to-day is undoubtedly, so far as the elementary 
school is concerned, somewhat in favor of things and 
processes and of the child's activity. This is a combina- 
tion for which the kindergarten has stood from the be- 
ginning ; this is embodied also in the Children's House. 
It is probable that no passages in the "Education of 
Man" have been more misunderstood and ridiculed 
than the following : 

"Therefore, education . . . should necessarily be passive, 
following (only guarding and protecting), not prescriptive, cate- 
gorical, interfering." 

"This necessity implies that the young human being — as it 
were, still in the process of creation — would seek, although still 
unconsciously, as a product of nature, yet decidedly and surely, 
that which is in itself best ; and, moreover, in a form wholly 
adapted to his condition, as well as to his disposition, his powers, 
and means." 

"We grant space and time to young plants and animals because 
we know that, in accordance with the laws that live in them, they 
wiU develop properly and grow well ; young animals and plants 
are given rest, and arbitrary interference with their growth is 
avoided, because it is known that the opposite practice would 
disturb their pure unfolding and sound development ; but the 
young human being is looked upon as a piece of wax, a lump of 
clay, which man can mold into what he pleases." ^ 

^ The Education of Man, Froebel, pp. 7-8. D. Appleton & Co. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 



211 



There has probably been no aspect of work Hke that 
embodying the ideas of Dr. John Dewey at the Ele- 
mentary School of the University of Chicago which has 




A Singing Group in the Kindergarten. 
(Iowa State Teachers College.) 

received as caustic criticism as has the idea of giving 
the child the privilege of being the active agent in his 
own education. Doctor Montessori exhorts teachers 



212 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

to a policy of self-effacement that has much in com- 
mon with the views presented by such experimental 
schools. Whether her practice would go beyond what 
was in the minds of these reformers and probably ap- 
proximated by some of their associates, it would be im- 
possible to say. Her directresses are to intervene only 
when the children's acts are antisocial, ill-bred, or harm- 
ful, when they (so far as didactic materials are con- 
cerned) are not in accordance with the most direct route 
to the accomplishment of their specific purposes. She 
would not permit a child to mar furniture, or to snatch 
an object from another, since the materials were intended 
for other purposes, to walk down the stairs made by 
him out of the broad blocks, or to use the long stair rods 
to construct railroad tracks. With all but the last two 
of these the kindergarten and primary school would 
agree. But with these, the variance would be that uses 
which enrich the child's experience with what he has 
made, or that add to his discovery of the possibilities 
of the material composing it, are encouraged. There 
is never just one, or a very limited number of things 
that can be done with the handwork materials used in 
kindergarten and primary school. Since Doctor Mon- 
tessori, however, provides some material to supplement 
the didactic set, one can imagine that the equipment, 
when not Hmited by funds, will resemble somewhat the 
equipment of the kindergarten which has acquired the 
didactic apparatus. At least some of the Froebelian 
materials objected to by Doctor Montessori are those 
now obsolete in the best American kindergarten practice. 
Through the self-effacement of the teacher and the 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 213 

provision for movable furniture, the child is to grow in 
self-help and independence as he has not grown before. 
This doctrine, too, is held by the kindergarten, but 
the exigencies of being obliged to dismiss some thirty 
children and to come back from luncheon in an hour or 
so to play and work with another thirty children 
necessitates some helping with wraps that is not in 
accord with the theory of the one who does the helping. 
The conception that the time schedule of a very short 
session (instead of an all day one) must guide the changes 
of work for the group, may also be productive in prac- 
tice of more assistance than the kindergarten teacher 
approves of. The time schedule exists in the Children's 
House, but it does not force itself upon the attention 
of the visitor so decidedly for two reasons : first, be- 
cause of the longer day ; and second, because for cer- 
tain periods (sense-exercises, hand work, gardening) the 
children are not in groups arranged by the teacher on 
the basis of the children's apparently similar capacities. 
The plan of individual work is one of the most valu- 
able features of the Montessori school. It must be 
borne in mind, however, that the group activities of the 
really good American kindergarten and primary school 
bring valuable experiences to children. For example, 
having given material to a group, the teacher looks for 
variations in the reactions upon the same. If colored 
crayons and paper are given for the first time, the 
teacher will see some helter-skelter scribbling, some 
smooth rubbing, some orderly arrangement of lines or 
dots, some representations of objects. When the appro- 
priate moment arrives, she encourages a sharing of the 



214 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




L 



Other agencies of early education 215 

results. She or the children or both show papers to the 
class, telling what has happened. She comments, pos- 
sibly, upon the one which has upon it the effort for 
which she wishes the class to strive, basing her wish 
upon her knowledge of the subject matter of drawing 
(both representative and decorative) and her knowledge 
of the children's ability. 

With papers passed, the class sets to work again. 

This time those who were ready for the next step will 
show the influence of the moment or two that was given 
to looking and listening. Suppose that smooth colorings 
of the surface had been chosen for emphasis by the 
teacher ; the second crop of papers would show a greater 
number with efforts at smooth surface covering. Some- 
times the result will suggest to the child its resemblance 
to something well known to him. Immediately his 
effort becomes that thing, and he then wishes paper 
to attempt more of the same. The round and round 
red spots of good size may have suggested apples ; the 
horizontal green or brown spots, the grass or ground ; 
the blue, the sky or water. But ere long by accident 
or by idea he places more in his pictures ; the apple 
must be on a tree, the tree must have ground under it 
and sky above it. As level after level is reached, he and 
his group are made conscious of each other's efforts and 
results. This pooling is never for the attainment of 
absolute uniformity of ideas, of composition and of 
technique. It is for the enrichment and defining of 
experience. 

Some of these results are placed on the bulletin board 
for a brief time where all may see them ; some are 



2l6 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

selected for the books which the children will eventually 
take home — not only to show to parents but to remind 
themselves of their growth in skill ; some will be used to 
decorate the blotter, the calendar, the booklet, or card 
with which the children plan to mark the festivals of 
Christmas, Valentine and Easter. These with the fur- 
nishing of play houses, the making of simpler toys or 
utensils, lift the child's activity to the level of the pur- 
posive; a level on which he conceives a desired end, 
selects materials and determines the process necessary 
to its realization. This, the nature of work at its best, 
is also the nature of play. The two activities are not 
antagonistic, as some would suppose. Both satisfy 
fundamental human needs ; both can embody the same 
mental attitude. If each is worth its name, they are 
entered into with equal zest, curiosity and ambition 
for skillful performance. 

In the sweep of the movement from first scribbHng 
to an art production of gift book, or toy house fur- 
nishing, what the children have accomplished will be 
supplemented by looking at or hearing about what the 
teacher or a greater artist than she has accomplished. 
The teacher has been guided by the principle that "as a 
usual thing, no activity should begin with the imitation 
of an adult model." This principle holds true in the 
use of various materials for hand work, games, and 
stories. At luncheon, the children do the best they can 
in passing the paper napkins, the glass of water and the 
graham wafers ; they eat and drink as daintily as they 
have been trained to do in the home. Of course, they 
watch each other and the teacher. They absorb much 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 217 

copy, and sometimes consciously, often unconsciously, 
they modify their own actions. The teacher's, "I am 
glad Helen broke her bread before taking any of it," 
defines a particularly good effort on a child's part ; the 
other children's attention is centered upon it for a 
moment, it becomes a standard toward which those 
who are ready will aspire at their next opportunity. 

This profiting by each other's experience through the 
organized group work, and this greater use of the better 
things that children of varying ages, abihties and home 
training will contribute are marked features of our best 
kindergarten and primary schools. It is sometimes a 
shorter cut than that involved in purely individual in- 
struction, as it keeps the standard (or model) close to 
the child's abihty; there is also opportunity for in- 
dividual work in the good kindergarten and primary 
school. The writer observed some group work in the 
Children's Houses delightfully carried out, but the di- 
dactic materials as far as noticed were not used until 
they had been presented to individual children, through 
individual lessons. The presentation consisted in doing 
(and saying) just the one or few things for which the 
material was designed. The cylindrical insets were not 
to be rolled as barrels or built up into a tower or to march 
as soldiers, but were to be taken out and put back into 
the frame. The eHmination of error, the decrease of 
time, the association of thick, thicker ; thin, thinner, 
with the perception of variation in dimension, and the 
deft handHng as the cylinders were replaced into the 
frame, were goals sought. The experimentation to find 
new possibilities of material, the play of the imagina- 



2IJ 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 




^ ^ 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 219 

tion, clothing the objects with other attributes, were 
evidences that the child was not ready for, or had 
mastered, what the apparatus involved. In either case, 
he and it were separated. 

The free-hand drawing (without use of metal insets), 
some of the clay work, and blocks of various kinds, 
afford the child opportunities for effort without the 
copy being shown or dictated. There might be danger 
here, if one were not skilled in keeping the proper bal- 
ance, of swinging from extreme prescription of copy by 
an adult on the one hand to absence of guidance on the 
other. Since invention and imitation are the two legs 
upon which the race has walked in reaching its present 
level of aesthetic, industrial and institutional Hfe, and 
since every normal human being is constantly exhibiting 
in his own early life (and later, if he hasn't allowed him- 
self to fall into a rut) the tendency to walk similarly, 
good method in kindergarten, primary school and 
Children's House must seek to embrace in the most 
helpful proportion for the individual and the group the 
elements of discovering and of copying. 

To elaborate all the points of similarity and difference 
between the agencies under discussion is not the purpose 
of this book. Its aim is rather to provoke investigation 
and the testing out and measuring of our own and other's 
methods by the best standards that can be set up. 

Doctor Montessori has satirized the ItaHan kinder- 
garten, with its small unventilated rooms, its large 
numbers (50 or more in the care of one teacher), its 
long, slanting desks and benches, its tiresome dictated 
occupations and directed games ; and her statements 



220 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

have been seized upon and made capital of by those 
who are opposed to the kindergarten. If she has for 
her background and the basis of her judgments the sort 
of municipal kindergartens which the writer saw in 
Rome, her criticisms are well taken. It is Hkely that 
Doctor Montessori has Httle conception of kindergarten 
procedure as carried on in a good American school. 
A careful study of her book and observations of her 
methods as applied with children in Rome, would 
prompt one to beheve that she would find much to 
dehght her in our American child garden, with its elu- 
sive, changeable materials, its childlike dramatic play, 
its rich social experiences, its space, sunshine and 
hygienic care, its artistic, simple surroundings. 

No one who reads her book and is stirred by the wise 
judgment and deep spiritual insight there conveyed, 
can accuse Doctor Montessori of ignoring the creative 
and imaginative sides of a child's nature, although these 
are not emphasized in her system. She is preeminently 
a scientist, and as one might expect, the trend of her 
plans is toward, the practical, the clear-cut, the fact side 
as a foundation. In her deahngs with children, how- 
ever, the tender, nurturing, human spirit is most evi- 
dent. She has come into sudden and unsought promi- 
nence in the educational world and has been forced 
to display a system not yet perfectly completed or 
rounded out. 

Elizabeth Harrison tells us that it is a mark of culture 
to refuse to pass judgment upon a thing not fully under- 
stood. We should be open-minded in our attitude to- 
ward the Casa dei Bambini, and feel a keen sense of 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 221 

fellowship with this woman across the water who has, 
with intellectual grasp and common sense, made a dem- 
onstration of some fundamental ideas among children 
of varying types and conditions. It is not necessary to 
agree with all these ideas in order to catch the inspira- 
tion and profit by the insight of Doctor Montessori. 
She stirs us to a firmer belief in the faith that is in us 
along such fines as (i) freedom for the child, (2) individ- 
ual instruction, (3) auto-education, (4) suitable stimuli 
for sensory activity, (5) a simpfified schedule, (6) care 
of the child's body, (7) patience, poise and lack of 
haste, (8) plenty of outdoor life. 

If we gain a full conception of the significance of such 
school health ideals as Doctor Montessori has rean- 
nounced, many transformations will occur in school 
environment. Teachers will become more intelfigent, 
more sensitive, more active ; supervising officers will 
keep abreast with their teachers in all matters, so that 
they may not only be sanely sympathetic with requests 
made but may become aggressive through carefully 
compiled and pubHcly distributed information concern- 
ing existing conditions ; school boards will be composed 
of men and women whose intelfigence is equal to select- 
ing, understanding and trusting for supervisory and 
teaching forces such persons as can give evidence of 
knowledge of and interest in the health aspect of school 
life ; parents will come to a reafization that their obfiga- 
tions entail a first-hand knowledge of the school to 
which they intrust their children, and will thus become 
willing to make greater sacrifices, if necessary, for the 
support of health-promoting schools. 



222 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

Since the development of strong, vigorous children 
means more to America's future than the development 
of the choicest Burbank varieties of fruits, or the pro- 
motion of the greatest pecuniary enterprise, it is well 
for us to consider these matters.^ 

Doctor Montessori recommends, first, a wholesome 
school environment in which are provided suitable chairs 
instead of spine-curving seats, fresh air and sunshine, 
nourishing food and comfortable clothing ; broad, open 
spaces and earth to dig in ; plants to water and pets' 
to feed, and, since physical strength like moral fiber 
comes only through actual struggle, gymnastic appara- 
tus upon which growing bodies may stretch and balance. 
(This includes a suspended rubber ball to push for arm 
development, a fence for climbing, a spiral staircase, 
rope ladders and swings.^) Second, careful and frequent 
biological tests and measurements, made for the purpose 
of detecting and endeavoring to overcome every physi- 
cal defect, thus freeing the child from handicap and 
protecting society against the possibility of weakness 
perpetuating itself through heredity. Third, the child 
is taught scientific truth regarding his body and given 
definite instruction as to its care, which develops a rev- 
erence for it and tends toward personal purity and health. 
Fourth, through definite training in motor control and 
muscular coordination, tension is removed, and poise 
and serenity result. 

Our American children, with their buoyancy of spirit 
and their fund of nervous energy, need careful attention 
along these Knes. The child's health rights should 

' Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, Whipple. 
2 The Montessori Method, Chapter IX. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 223 

be placed in the foreground, and child hygiene, medical 
inspection and desirable school equipment and sanita- 
tion urged by teachers who must first become more 
intelligent themselves as to the close relationship be- 
tween physical health and mental and moral vigor. 
Weekly conferences between parents and teachers will 
aid in this safeguarding.^ 

The cooperation of the church, the women's club, the 
Parent-teacher Association, and other organizations may 
reasonably be expected in the campaign for the stimu- 
lation of public sentiment along these lines. 

Health assured, the child's next right is the oppor- 
tunity to grow into an independent human being through 
the exercise of his own capacities on tasks that seem of 
great moment to him and at a rate of speed commensurate 
with his particular condition. There is the classic 
story of the American superintendent who proudly 
proclaimed that his school system was so perfected 
that he could tell at any moment just what every class 
of every grade was doing. Superintendents generally 
would not acknowledge such an ideal, but the goal 
suggested by the Children's Houses (that the time 
schedule and the choice of material are of secondary 
importance to the child's power and rate of growth, 
and interest in a given task) has seldom been striven for. 

Some rural school teachers are now running on pre- 
scribed schedules of thirty recitations a day. To get 
them all in means keeping account of time and stopping 
whether children have arrived anywhere or not.^ Except 

1 Medical Inspection of Schools, Gulich and Ayers. 

2 The Country School, Seerley, p. 52. 



224 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

for fewer recitations per day, the same statement is 
true of city school systems. Getting through according 
to the clock instead of the children seems the principle 
most in practice. The same is true when one thinks of 
that other time indicator — the calendar. The slow 
inust be hurried on to reach the minimum for passing, 
the bright must be restrained from exceeding the maxi- 
mum for promotion into the next grade ; the pernicious, 
lock-step idea of the businessHke superintendent con- 
trolling not only the children's growth, but the teacher's 
ideals as well.^ 

Ayres throws much light upon this problem in his 
discussion of remedial measures.^ He gives the report 
of one city school, where the schedule is so flexible 
that children move along from class to class in subject 
after subject as they individually can. Regularity of 
attendance, good health, faithful appHcation to work, 
and natural endowment are each potent factors in 
determining how many years shall be spent in securing 
an education. 

According to this report of those who enter the high 
school from the grammar school, 49 per cent have done 
the work in six years, 29 per cent have done the same in 
five years, 7 per cent in four years, and 15 per cent had 
to take the longer time of seven or more years. In this 
system, the bugaboo of administration of adjusting 
one school to another has not been allowed to over- 
shadow their real purpose — the development and 
education of human beings. Just why such systems 

1 All the Children of All the People, Smith, Chapter XV. 

2 Laggards in Our Schools, Ayres, Russell Sage Foundation. 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 225 

have not exerted more influence in this country it is 
difficult to explain. In such a system, the relation of 
teacher to pupil would necessarily be somewhat Hke 
that in the Children's House. It would be her business 
to observe individuals carefully, to keep a record of their 
progress, to pass the same along to the next teacher. 
It would be her business to provide a stimulating envi- 
ronment, to leave the child free in his reactions upon 
the same and to help him when he has reached his own 
limit or to prepare him for a conquest which would be 
time wasting if left to the individual. She would un- 
doubtedly become outwardly much more passive, and 
inwardly much more active. She would do much less 
talking, and more thinking. She would be more direct, 
simple and concise when the moment for instruction 
arrived. 

Coupled with the development of independence must 
be the training for service. In the Children's House, 
the medium for this is the activities usually carried on 
in the home, performed by paid caretakers in the school 
or acquired in the domestic economy element that is 
beginning to permeate American courses of study. 

It is likely that nearly every phase of washing, dress- 
ing, serving luncheon, and caring for rooms is present 
in many schools in this country where these activities 
are needed as much as they were in the original Children's 
Houses. In some schools, especially of a philanthropic 
or private nature, such service to self and in turn to 
others is theoretically based on the idea of training for 
social service when it is, in reality, a necessary financial 
economy. The point at which such routine tasks lose 

Q 



220 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

their educative value must not be ignored. Other and 
newer thought-stimulating problems do present them- 
selves to children and teachers, and time must be 
allowed for these. Education means doing new things, 
meeting unexpected emergencies and not continuously 
going over the same ground. If one would continue to 
grow, in later life, when one's occupation entails this rep- 
etition, there is especial need of fostering new interests. 

Among the things bequeathed to every human being 
by the race, are, as well as the content of learning, the 
so-called tools of learning. The Children's House by 
changing the order of the two R's, and by using the 
tactile motor apparatus in acquiring writing before 
reading, eliminates drudging labor for the Italian child 
and puts in its place pleasant energy-saving activity. 

The question as to when the child should learn to 
read and write is one upon which opinion varies. Most 
American authorities would have him wait until he has 
gained some acquaintance with his environment and 
had opportunity for self-expression through many natural 
childlike means, with the social motive in the fore- 
ground. Concerning this matter Elisabeth Ross Shaw 
recently said : 

"In regard to the too early teaching of reading and writing, the 
unanimous testimony of biologists, neurologists and psychologists 
is, that certain fundamental parts of the brain develop first, and 
their accessory association areas mature later. Speech is funda- 
mental, reading is accessory; drawing is fundamental, writing is 
accessory. Surely it is only common sense to exercise the earliest 
developed powers first, knowing that throughout organic evolu- 
tion, from the lowest forms of life to its human apex, the higher 
functions are reached by development from the lower. To develop 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 227 

an accessory power prematurely is like pulling green fruit while 
leaving an abundant harvest of ripe fruit ungathered."^ 

To prove or disprove the value of the Montessori 
ideas and materials on such points involves some care- 
fully conducted experiments. Up to now, there are 
no carefully measured results upon the education of 
children with varied materials and varying methods. 
The widespread interest in Doctor Montessori's work 
should lead to such experiments, well conducted. These 
would entail an outlay for equipment, for expert teach- 
ers and other workers far beyond that yet allowed for 
young children. 

America's greatest need to-day is scientific insight on 
the part of those who have to do with the vital problem 
of race training. A proper biological, psychological and 
social background would bring wisdom and judgment to 
all matters of choice of method and material to be 
used in the educative process. 

It is true that actual daily contact with children 
clears away many misconceptions, but scientific knowl- 
edge of the little body through which the soul is strug- 
gling for realization, and definite information as to the 
natural behavior of the potential mind and spirit gives 
to the parent or teacher a scientist's confidence and an 
artist's touch upon child life which results in bodily 
poise, intellectual mastery and social cooperation. 

With this attitude, none would be blind followers of 

any system, method or device (be it that of Pestalozzi, 

Froebel or Montessori), but all would challenge each to 

measure up to standards set by the latest word from 

1 National Education Association Proceedings, 19 13. 



228 THE MONTESSORI METHOD 

the science of child study. And regarding the theory 
and practice of any institution where little children are 
taught (home, kindergarten, primary school, or Casa 
dei Bambini) such questions as the following, and many 
others, would be asked : 

1. Does it call for alert intelligence on the part of 
adults regarding the childish instincts, tendencies and 
needs which take turns in becoming prominent during 
these years? i.e. to investigate, to imitate, to construct, 
to nurture, to wonder, to control, etc. 

2. Do the materials offered provide suitable nourish- 
ment for these hungering instincts while they at the 
same time exert an influence toward socialized conduct ? 
i.e. Montessori didactic and gymnastic apparatus, 
kindergarten gifts and occupations, playground equip- 
ment, household activities, manual training, books, 
weights and measures, gardens, pets, stories, music, con- 
versation, dramatization, games, drawing, writing, na- 
ture study, elementary science, social institutions, etc. 

3. Are these stimuli placed within the child's reach by 
the adult in such a manner that he spontaneously re- 
sponds to them and thus becomes an active agent in his 
own development? i.e.: 

a. Are the child's tastes, abilities and previous ex- 
periences so considered that the aims are childlike and 
natural ? 

b. Are the incipient powers of judgment and choice 
brought into exercise ? 

c. Is opportunity given for freedom (not caprice) 
which is balanced by responsibility, thus stimulating 
initiative, independence and self-control? 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 229 

d. Is there a tendency toward clear thinking, and 
toward the organization of ideas and activities ? 

e. Do activities tend toward self-directed and creative 
effort, and is tjie child happy in his work -because it 
seems to him worthy of his effort (not monotonous 
drudgery) and because he can recognize and correct his 
own mistakes when they are pointed out ? 

/. Does the day's program hold the child's health as 
a supreme consideration, viewing subject matter in its 
relation to mental and physical fatigue? 

g. Is the spirit of curiosity and wonder in regard to 
things in nature turned to account as the beginning of 
reverence and faith? 

It is to be hoped that Montessori ideals will find their 
place in American life in a natural and unforced way, 
that such workers as Miss George and others who have 
had the good fortune to study with Doctor Montessori will 
so adapt her methods as to make them valuable for our 
uses, and that all parents and teachers who attempt 
to apply the methods and materials in home and school 
will do so with that respect for the fundamental prin- 
ciples underlying them which will bring (i) reverence 
for personality and (2) recognition of the immeasurable 
educative possibilities of the young child. 

The more flexible day and term, the greater emphasis 
upon individual progress, the more gradual group or-' 
ganization, the more self-effacing adult, the more in- 
telligent provision for sensori-motor activity and 
other valuable features may be tried out within the usual 
limits set by average home and school requirements. : ' 

A careful consideration of the Montessori Method \yiil*' 



230 



THE MONTESSORI METHOD 



convince all those who seek to be fair and candid 
that it contains principles of vital worth and that the 
schools offer object lessons which we cannot afford to 
ignore. While there is not yet in sight any such thing 




Nimble Fingers lacing a Montessori Frame. 
(Iowa State Teachers College.) 

as finality in educational systems, and while we are not 
looking for systems as such, let us hope that in the 
changing and eddying currents of our study and experi- 
ment, we shall gradually receive and assimilate the 
best in each new conquest of thought. Here, in Amer- 
ica, the very spirit of our democratic society has brought 



OTHER AGENCIES OF EARLY EDUCATION 23 1 

to pass much of the freedom, the self-activity and the 
personal development which Doctor Montessori has em- 
bodied in a coherent system. It is not Ukely that we 
shall see any clear Hne of cleavage between the old and 
the new, but we shall no doubt see in time the introduc- 
tion of every demonstrated principle of The Montessori 
Method, which shall help children to escape unneces- 
sary drudgery, and to find the acquisition of truth and 
power a process of delight. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Montessori Method, by Maria Montessori. 
Translated from the Italian by Anne E. George. 
Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, Publishers, 1912, 377 pp. 
An illuminating treatise of theory and practice. A neces- 
sary text for the student of Dr. Montessori's system. 
Pedagogical Anthropology, by Maria Montessori. 

Translated from the Italian by Frederick Taber Cooper. 
Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, Publishers, 1913, 508 pp. 
This large volume, composed of lectures delivered at the 
University of Rome during a period of four years, is the 
result of deep scientific research and will prove an invaluable 
guide to those students wishing to gain a mastery of the 
basic principles underlying the Montessori Method. 
The Montessori System, by Theodate L. Smith. 

Harper & Bros., New York, Publishers, 191 2, 78 pp. 

A brief but clear explanation of the pedagogic methods of 
Dr. Maria Montessori from the standpoint of a psychologist 
and practical worker with children, including an account 
of some experiments made in an American school. 
A Montessori Mother, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. 

Henry Holt and Company, New York, Publishers, 191 2, 
238 pp. 
Mrs. Fisher, disclaiming all attempt at technical discussion, 
psychological or pedagogical, brings to American mothers 
and teachers an inspirational message regarding the ideals 
and practices of Dr. Montessori. 

The charmed reader finds herself watching the activities 
of Montessori children and entering with joyous relish 
into every one of them, because of the graceful style, the 
233 



234 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

nurturing sympathy and wisdom, the subtle humor and the 
vivid illustrations of truth brought by this skillful writer. 

A Guide to the Montessori Method, by Ellen Yale Stevens. 

Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, 'Publishers, 1913, 240 pp. 
A CO prehensive study of the psychological basis of Dr. 
Montessori's method and a summary and interpretation 
of the principles underlying it. Also a study of "their 
concrete embodiment" in the didactic materials with sug- 
gestions for amplification and adaptation in the United 
States and a description of a successful" summer experiment 
with a group of American children. 

The Montessori System of Education, by Anna Tolman Smith. 
U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 191 2, No. 17, 30 pp. 
An explanation of characteristic features set forth in the 
Montessori Method, with some comments from other 
authors and a discussion of the applicability of the Method 
in the United States. 

The Normal Child and Primary Education, by Beatrice C. & Arnold 
Gesell. 
Ginn & Co., Boston, Publishers, 1912. 
An appendix gives 18 pages to the discussion of the Mon- 
tessori Method under the title, The Montessori Kinder- 
garten. 

National Educational Association Proceedings, 1912, pp. 609-621. 

National Educational Association Proceedings, 1913, Kindergarten 
Department. 

American Primary Teacher, Vol. 35, pp. 285-286, April 191 2. 
Editorial, Dr. A. E. Winship. 

Gives in sententious style a fair, clear-cut statement of " What 
the Montessori system is," "What the Montessori system 
is not," "What the Montessori system does." 
American Primary Teacher, Vol. 35, pp. 368-369, June 1912. 
Mary Jackson Kennedy. 

The author sees in the Montessori method "Strong forces to 
reform many evils of our present system and much to supple- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 235 

ment kindergarten work." She is not, however, an "advo- 
cate of the method as an educational cure-all." Experi- 
ments made at Miss Wheeler's school, Providence, R.I., are 
briefly referred to. 

Contemporary Review, Vol. 102, p. 328, September 1912. 
Spontaneous Education. Herbert Burrows. 
A thoughtful and appreciative article. 

Current Literature, Vol. 52, pp. 311-313, March 1912. 
A Movement to Revolutionize Education. Editorial. 

A discussion of the American school problem. More demo- 
cratic and libertarian education urged, and the ideals of 
Montessori and Ferrer held up as contributions to this end. 

Delineator. 
Vol. 83, No. 4, October 1913. 

Began a series of articles by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Sug- 
gestions as to the applicaticwi of the method in the home. 
Miss Bailey has studied the schools in Rome. 

Dial, Vol. 52, pp. 392-394, May 16, 191 2. 

The Montessori Method of Teaching. M. V. O'Shea. 

Contrasts Montessori and the American methods, and con- 
cludes with the statement, "The whole Montessori system is 
about where the American system was twenty-five years 
ago. It is a great improvement on general Italian practice 
in Rome, but it does not give the American teacher a new 
point of view which will be of service to him in solving his 
present problems." 

Education, Vol. 33, pp. i-io, September 1912. 
The Montessori Methods. W. H. Holmes. 

The writer claims that "Montessori with her communizing 
ideas, is sowing the seeds of a doctrine which leads away 
from the home." He refers to the Children's Houses where 
the motherly care of the children is communized, and says, 
" So far as I can see, the spiritual mother element is lacking 
to a large degree in the Montessori method." 

Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 12, pp. 253-258. February 1912. 
Montessori and Froebel — A Comparison. Ellen Yale Stevens. 



236 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

From the standpoint of a Montessori advocate, Miss Stevens 
points out that "As Maria Montessori's preparation was so 
much broader than that of Froebel, as her genius — creative 
and intuitive Hke his — had a severer, more scientific training, 
so is the point of view of each essentially different." "While 
Froebel sees first the universe, then the child, Montessori's 
point of view is wholly that of the child." "Froebel's teach- 
ers are in front of their children" — leading, directing. 
"Montessori's are behind theirs, watching" — leaving ini- 
tiative to the children. 
Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 13, pp. 66-79, October 1912. 
Montessori and Froebehan Methods and Materials. L. A. 
Palmer. 
The author discusses from a kindergartner's standpoint the 
possible combinations of Montessori and Froebelian materials 
and methods as suggested by Professor Holmes in his intro- 
duction to "The Montessori Method." 

"It would seem as though the Montessori and Froebelian 
materials were not equivalent, that they were intended to 
supplement each other. One lays emphasis on a single 
property of matter at a time, the other offers several for 
discrimination and consideration. One draws attention to 
the inert properties of matter which pertain to lower forms 
of nature, the other includes motion and possible position, 
the attributes of higher types of life. Montessori empha- 
sizes the more primitive attitude of the child as a learner 
from material, Froebel suggests experimenting and learning 
from material but also using it to carry out human ideas." 
"Mme. Montessori is restricted in materials and methods 
with materials, but she is free in actual practice because 
she feels so intensely the individual's right to follow his own 
life. Froebel's materials and possible methods are freer, 
but when he described his practice he became more circum- 
scribed." 

"Choice might be based upon the degree to which the 
materials carry out the characteristic aims of the two edu- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 237 

cators, the discovery and control of the properties of 
matter, and the interpretation through material. This is 
a question which admits of much debate." 
Good Housekeeping Magazine, Vol. 55, pp. 24-29. 

Dr. Maria Montessori — An Account of the Achievements and 
Personality of an Italian Woman whose Discovery is revolu- 
tionizing Educational Methods. Anne E. George. 
Interesting because of Miss George's close acquaintance with 
Dr. Montessori and her work. 
International Review of Missions, April 1913. 

Montessori Method and Missionary Methods. Allen Roland. 
Journal of Education has the following articles written by well- 
known American educators. 
Vol. 76, p. 39, July 4, 191 2. 

A Caution on Montessori. Lightner Witmer. 
Vol. 77, p. 63, January 16, 1913. 
A Valuation of the Montessori Experiments. Walter M. 
Halsey. 
Results of some definite experiments in the use of materials 
are here given, and the author states : " Dr. Montessori has 
given us valuable suggestions — yes, even a challenge, but 
not a model to take as a whole." "To know her one must 
understand her central organizing idea — it is freedom." 
Vol. 77, p. 147, February 6, 1913. 

The Conflicting Pedagogy of Madame Montessori. W. A. 
Baldwin. 
Claims that the freedom promised is not provided because 
of the prescribed use of artificial didactic materials. 
Vol. 77, p. 328, March 1913. 

A Montessori Experiment in Maine. 

Tells of the successful use of the didactic materials. 
Vol. 77, p. 538, May 15, 1913. 

Seguin's Principles of Education as Related to the Montessori 
Method. Katrina Myers. 
A discussion of the theories and materials of Seguin set 
forth by a student of the abnormal child. The steps in 



238 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

the educative process as laid down by Seguin in his 
"Idiocy, Its Treatment by a Physiological Method," and 
carried out by him in actual practice, are explained, and 
points of similarity between these and the Montessori 
method are indicated. 
Journal of Educational Psychology. 3:121-32. March 1912. 
Howard C. Warren. A praiseworthy review of the work 
done in the Montessori schools. From the standpoint of a 
psychologist. 
Kindergarten Primary Magazine has the following series of ex- 
cellent articles by Dr. Jennie B. Merrill. 
Vol. 22, pp. 106-107, December 1909. 
Vol. 22, pp. 142-144, January 1910. 
Vol. 22, pp. 211-212, February 1910. 
Vol. 22, pp. 297-298, March 1910. 
Vol. 24, pp. 96-98, December 191 1. 
Valuable articles by Dr. W. N. Hailman are found in the 
same magazine. 
Vol. 24, pp. 261-263, June 191 2. 

A Glimpse of the Montessori Method. 
Vol. 25, pp. 6-7, September 191 2. 

The Montessori Method and the Kindergarten. 
Kindergarten Review, Vol. 23, No. 8, April 1913. 

Contains short, pertinent articles from three psychologists 
which discuss the relation of the Montessori Method to 
American school conditions. 
Kindergarten Review, Vol. 23, pp. 553-561, May 1912. 

Montessori and Froebel. Anna E. Logan. 
Ladies^ Home Journal, Vol. 29, p. 30, November 1913. 
What Really is the Montessori Method ? 

Author says that kindergartens will have much to unlearn 
before undertaking the Montessori Method, because "they 
must avoid stimulating the child's imagination and let it 
wake of its own motion." 
McClure's Magazine was the first periodical to present the Mon- 
tessori Method to American readers and has contributed 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 239 

the following authentic articles, written by Dr. Montessori 
herself and by other women who have come into personal 
touch with her schools. McCliire's Magazine has now a 
regularly established department — The Montessori Move- 
ment — conducted by Ellen Yale Stevens who, conver- 
sant with every phase of Montessori work both abroad 
and in America, is able to answer questions and give the 
latest word connected with the movement. 
Vol. 37, pp. 3-19, May 1911. 

An Educational Wonder Worker. Josephine Tozier. 
Vol. 38, pp. 122-137, January 191 2. 

Montessori Schools in Rome. Josephine Tozier. 
Vol. 38, pp. 289-302. 
A Description of the Materials and Apparatus Used in Teach- 
ing by the Montessori Method. Josephine Tozier. 
Vol. 39, pp. 95-102, May 191 2. 

Disciplining Children. Maria Montessori. 

Doctor Montessori's own account of her manner of develop- 
ing that kind of active discipline which leads to self-control. 
Vol. 39, pp. 177-187, June 1912. 

First Montessori School in America. Anne E. George. 

Miss George was Mme. Montessori's first American pupil 
and the first teacher to apply the Montessori method in 
the United States. The successful experiment was made 
in Tarrytown, New York. 
Vol. 40, pp. 77-82, November 191 2. 

Montessori Method and the American Kindergarten. Ellen 
Yale Stevens. 
Discusses the relative merits of the two systems. Declares 
that Montessori has gone deeper than Froebel. 
Vol. 41, No. I, May 1913. 

Rhythm Work in the Children's House at Washington. Anne 
E. George. 
New York Teachers Monographs, Vol. 14, pp. 25-32, June 191 2. 
Estimate of the Montessori System of Child Training. L. A. 
Williams. 



240 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 18, pp. 533-543, December 1911. 

Dr. Montessori and Her Houses of Childhood. Dr. T. L. Smith. 
Primary Plans, Vol. 10, pp. 9-10, 39-40, November 191 2. 

Montessori Method, Self-Education. Mrs. H. H. Bullock. 
Popular Educator, Vol. 30, pp. 311-313. February 1913. 
The Newest Educational Enthusiasm. M. V. O'Shea. 
Primary Education, Vol. 20, pp. 313-316, June 1912. 

The Montessori Method and Primary Education. Ellen Yale 
Stevens. 
School Journal, Vol. 80, pp. 135-136, February 1913. 

The Montessori Method in Relation to the Rural Schools. 
Myron T. Scudder. 
Scientific American, Vol. 106, pp. 564-565, June 22, 191 2. 
What is the Montessori Method? S. M. Gruenberg. 

An unprejudiced view of the method and some hints for its 
adaptation. The article is illustrated with photographs of 
Miss George's Montessori school in Washington. 
Survey, Vol. 27, pp. 1 595-1 597, June 20, 191 2. 

The Montessori Method of Educating Children. R. R. Reeder. 
Technical World, April 1913. 

Shocked into Smartness. F. G. Moorehead. 
Volte Review offers the following articles : 
Vol. 14, pp. 48-49, 74-85, April, May 191 2. 

The Montessori Method and the Deaf Child. 
Vol. 14, pp. 146-147, June 1912. 

The Montessori Method Applicable to the Deaf. Mme. 
Margueles. 
Vol. 14, pp. 154-168. 

The Montessori Method of Teaching Hearing Children. Mrs. 
J. Scott Anderson. 
Woman's Home Companion began a series of articles September 
1 9 13. These are written by Mary Heaton Vorse and dis- 
cuss the Montessori principle and the American mother 
at home. The writer has visited the Italian schools. 



INDEX 



Arithmetic, 138. 

American methods in, 138-139. 

Definite number worli, 120-135. 

Fundamental processes, 125-134. 

Indefinite comparison, 118-120. 

Metric system, 135. 

Number content, 138. 

Pestalozzi, Froebel, Spear, Dewey, 
theories of, 138-139. 
Ayres', discussion of remedial measures, 
224. 

Barnes, on sense training, 87 ; on social 
capacity, 182. 

Casa dei Bambini, 
Cloister School, 10. 
Compared with the kindergarten, 

203-208. 
Directress of, 36-38. 
Establishment of, 7. 
Freedom in, 13-15. 
Impressions of, 15. 
Pincian Hill School, 11. 
Program for, 23-24. 
Requirements for entrance, 8. 
Child study movement, 32, S3- 
Child, teacher, and curriculum, 200, 

208. 
Child training, Aristotle's three con- 
ditions for, 184. 
Children, abnormal, brought up to 

grade, 6. 
Children, defective conditions in, 4, 5, 

53, 55- 
Children, responsibility in rearing, i68. 
Chubb, on language arts, 107. 
Clay, the value of, 154-155. 
Collective interest, 29. 
Color, 75, 82. 
Color, matching, 21. 
Composition, 107-110. 
Comradeship, love of, 23. 
Constructive motive, 145-148. 



Design, 93, 94, 155. 
Dewey, 211. 
Didactic material. 

Alphabets, 21. 

Broad stair, 20, 72, 118. 

Chest of drawers for textures, 18, 
69. 

Color tablets, 75. 

Conditions desirable for the use of, 
8s, 86. 

Cylindrical insets, 18, 72, 74. 

Demonstration and use of, 177. 

Frames for lacing, etc., 10. 

How presented, 83. 

Insets for making designs, 21. 

In the home, 174-180. 

In the Montessori school, 17-33. 

Long stair, 20, 70. 

Plane geometric forms, 75. 

Plane geometric insets, 74. 

Sandpaper board, 36; figures, 124; 
letters, loo, loi. 

Sound boxes, 76. 

Tablets for weighing, 71. 

Tower, 24, 72. 

Typical exercises with, 78-85. 

Writing table, 93. 
Discipline, how obtained, 33-35, 41- 

47. 
Drawing, 155-160. 

Elementary school, history of, 191. 
Environment, 29, 57, 59. 

Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 40, 80, 81. 
Formal sense training, 87. 
Freedom, 28, 31, 55. 
Free-hand drawing, 158. 
Froebel, 32, 37, 65. 

Games, 22. 

Gesell, on touch, 62, 63, 67. 

Good Building Association of Rome, 7. 



241 



242 



INDEX 



Halleck, on sense- training, 6g. 

Hand, significance of child's work 

with, 143-144. 
Harrison, Elizabeth, on color, 76. 
Health ideals, 221. 
Hearing, 76, 80. 
Hill, Patty Smith, 193-196. 
Home, 

Agencies outside of, 167. 

Didactic materials in, 174-177. 

Different types of, 170. 

Household activities, 15-16, 23-24. 

Montessori's ideals for, 171-172. 

Transformation of, 164-165. 

Woman's place in, 163-164. 
Huey, on reading, 114. 
Hughes, on Froebel's theory, 114. 

Ideals, Montessori's, applied to Ameri- 
can life, 221-226. 
Idiocy, problem of pedagogy, 45. 
Independence, 30. 
Infancy, significance of, 162-163. 
Instincts of children, 201. 
Isolation of one sense, 88. 
Itard, 5. 

Keller, Helen, 61, 62, 66. 
Kindergarten, 

Comparison with Casa dei Bambini, 
200-208, 210-220. 

Criticisms of, 190-193. 

Group activities of, 213-217. 

In America, 220. 

Its first setback in America, 206-207. 

Judged by its best standards, 288- 
289. 

Relative values in, 199. 

Report of the New York City school 
inquiry, 196-200. 

Spirit pervading the grades, 191. 

Studjr of one hundred of all types, 
189. 

Time element in program, 213. 

Two currents in, 200. 

Work in Rome, 219. 
King, on the kindergarten, 191. 

Liberty for children, 47-50. 
Luncheon, served by small waiters, 22. 



McMurry on school standards, 196. 
Medical training. Dr. Montessori's, 3. 
Method with feeble minded, 4. 
Memory, the germ of, 52, 53. 
Military order — Montessori's order, 

34, 45- 
Montessori Educational Association in 

America, 12. 
Mother play motto, 65. 
Morning talks, 17 
Muscular-tactile sense, 71.. 

New York City school inquiry, 197- 

200. 
Numeration, taught with objects, 117. 

Objects, child's first interest in, 57-58. 
Objects in children's environment, 58. 
Observation, how to stimulate, 84. 
Observation in a Montessori school, 

7-22. 
Opportunity, Montessori's, for testing 

her theories, 6, 7. 
Orthophrenia school in Rome, 3. 

Parents, responsibility of, 168; Mon- 
tessori's ideals for, 171-172. 

Parker, ideals compared with those of 
Montessori, 26-27. 

Patience and poise of Montessori, 39. 

Personality, Montessori's, 4-5 ; rever- 
ence for child's, 28-31. 

Pestalozzi, 32, 138. 

Politeness cultivated, 47. 

Potentialities, unawakened, 25. 

Primary school, 188-189. 

Prizes and punishments, 44. 

Program of Montessori school, 24-25. 

Promotions, 223-225. 

Public funds for school purposes, 187- 



Reading, 

American methods in, 114, 115. 
Basic reasons for method, 112. 
Process of teaching, 111-112. 
Relation to writing, 109-110. 
Silent, 113-114. 
When child should learn, 226. 



INDEX 



243 



Recognition, of Itard's and Seguin's 

work, 12. 
Relative values in the kindergarten, 

199. 
Roman Association of Good Building, 

7- 
Rome, location of Montessori schools 

in, II. 
Rousseau, 32. 
Routine, where it loses value, 225. 

School in Montessori's home, 11. 

School of Educative Art, 149. 

Scientific knowledge of children, im- 
portance of, 227. 

Seguin, s ; his lesson plan, 68, 78. 

Self-activity, Froebel, 210; Montes- 
sori, 212. 

Self corrective exercises, 82, 94, 121. 

Selfishness of children, 47. 

Sense organs, 53 

Senses, exercise of, 57, 67. 

Sequence, over-devotion to, 199. 

Shaw, Ehzabeth Ross, 89, 226. 

Sight, 72-76. 

Silence game, 79-82. 

Smell, 77. 

Smith, Theodate L., discusses disci- 
pline, 43. 

Social capacity of children, 182. 

Social organization, highest ideal of, 
29-31- 

Standards, grown-up, for children, 46. 

Standards of New York school in- 
quiry, 196-200. 

Stevens, Ellen Yale, discusses disci- 
pline, 41-42. 



Stimuli, creative, transformable, 89. 
Student, Dr. Montessori's success as, 
3, 4- 

Taste, 77. 

Taylor, on touch, 64. 

Teacher, 

A dominating figure, 35. 

Her method, 209-210. 

Her work is twofold, 201. 

Scientific insight, 36, 39. 

Self-effacement, 35-36. 
Temperature, 70. 
Test of discipline, 41. 
Textures, 69-70. 
Touch, 69, 78. 
Toys, 58, 174. 
Transferrence of power, 89-90. 

Unawakened potentialities of infants, 
52, 53- 

Verification, the principle of, 121. 
Via Guisti, school in, 9-11. 

Weight, 71, 82. 
Whitman, poem by, 67. 
Woman's sphere, 164-167. 
Writing, 

An experiment, 98. 

Basic ideas underlying, 105. 

Metal insets for, 93. 

Montessori's scheme for teaching, 
92-105. 

Outline of series of activities, 99- 
103- 

Spectacular feature of, 92. 



L 



»n 



